New wave of illegal migrants enmeshed in U.S. society

First of four parts

DANIEL GONZALEZ
The Arizona Republic

It's not easy to get a handle on the swirling debate over border security and illegal immigration when the headlines jerk you from one direction to another. Every day, the debate becomes more twisted, blurred and lost.
Instead of clarity, we are left with sound bites and stereotypes, especially around election time: images of day laborers on street corners, of immigrants straining schools and hospital emergency rooms, of endless waves of Latinos threatening "American" culture.

The truth is, illegal immigration is not a one-dimensional issue. It is enormously complex.

Beginning today, the Tucson Citizen will run a four-day series that takes a snapshot of immigration issues by examining who is coming over the border, what role immigrants play in the economy, their impact on Arizona's culture and proposals for stemming illegal immigration.

Today's installment looks at the new norm for illegal immigrants.

The stereotype of an illegal immigrant goes something like this:

He is young, with little education and few job skills. Paid in cash, he performs manual labor, lives with other illegal workers crammed into an apartment and hopes to return to his homeland someday.

The image has been reinforced by a proliferation of day laborers in tattered T-shirts and ball caps flagging down motorists outside The Home Depots. But that stereotype is no longer the rule.

The norm these days is couples such as Inez and Chico, who both came to the United States as illegal immigrants from Mexico. They live in Tucson, own a business and home and have two American-born daughters.

Inez and Chico were profiled in the Tucson Citizen in July. The Tucson Citizen's policy is to name sources whenever possible. However, to fully tell this story and serve the public's right to know, editors decided to identify them by first name only.

The new norm, which is partly the result of tighter border control, has broad implications for efforts to reform immigration policy, especially in Arizona, home to one of the largest and fastest-growing illegal immigrant populations.

The predominance of families with roots in U.S. communities complicates any plan to send illegal immigrants back. Whether Congress decides to try to force many of these families to return to their home countries or chooses to allow most to stay, the impact on Arizona promises to be wrenching. With one of every 11 residents an illegal immigrant, Arizona stands to be as deeply affected by their fate as any state.

Chico, now a legal U.S. resident, owns a commercial and residential gardening business. Inez takes care of the girls and volunteers at their school.

They are part of a surge in illegal immigrants, whose numbers now total 11 million, estimates the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, D.C. They include 500,000 in Arizona.

A sizable number of the nation's illegal immigrants, about 2.3 million, are men who came on their own without their families. But most of the remaining 8.7 million live in family settings, according to Pew.

Nearly half of the illegal immigrant population is women. Most are married and many have children, making them more likely to be enmeshed in American society through schools, churches and other organizations.

Two-thirds of these children, or 3.1 million in 2004, are U.S.-born citizens, Pew estimates. This means that, even though their parents could be deported, these children have the legal right to be here and obtain social services and welfare benefits.

Traditional values

In many ways, the families in the new wave of illegal immigrants resemble the traditional American family.

They tend to be hardworking people, who place high value on their families, religion and giving their children a better life.

Almost all male illegal immigrants are employed, according to Pew, while the women are more likely to stay home and raise children. What's more, the children are more likely to live in two-parent families.

Chico and Inez live in an East Side home they remodeled and his parents, who came to the United States legally, live in the guest house.

Because most illegal immigrants are from Mexico or elsewhere in Latin America, where the population is overwhelmingly Catholic, there is strong evidence the surge in illegal immigrant families is revitalizing Christianity in the United States, said Gaston Espinosa, assistant professor of religious studies at Claremont McKenna College in California.

Sinking roots in Arizona

The increase in illegal-immigrant families is largely because of tighter border security, which experts say has made it harder for illegal workers to go back and forth between Mexico and the United States. As a result, more women and children are coming to the United States so families can stay together. The flow also increased during the 1990s, when the economy tanked in Mexico and boomed in the United States.

The destinations also changed.

Until the mid-1990s, most illegal immigrants settled in six states: California, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Florida. But since then, millions have also migrated to many other states, where previously there had not been many illegal immigrants.

Arizona is one of them. Because of enhanced border enforcement in Texas and California, its proximity to the Mexico border and its booming economy, Arizona has simultaneously become a major destination for illegal immigrants and the nation's main gateway for those headed elsewhere in the country.

Every day, several thousand stream across the border, feeding Arizona's thriving economy with a bottomless labor pool. This flood has created a disaster at the border, which prompted Gov. Janet Napolitano in August to declare a state of emergency in order to help border counties fight illegal immigration and the increasingly violent immigrant- and drug-smuggling trades.

Over the past five years, the state's illegal immigrant population increased by nearly 200,000 to 500,000, the fifth-highest of all states, according to Pew. But in terms of the share of the overall population, Arizona ranks No. 1. Nine percent of the state's 5.7 million residents are here illegally.

"Immigrants go where they can find jobs," said Jeffrey Passel, a senior researcher at Pew. And where they have friends and family who can help them find jobs.

Inez and Chico are a case in point.

Chico crossed the Arizona border through Nogales in 1992 by jumping a fence and hopping a ride to Tucson. He came to join his two sisters, who were legal residents.

Inez came to the United States from Hermosillo, Son., to study English more than 10 years ago. The couple met at Pima Community College and married in 1994.

Chico finally got a green card, but Inez is still without papers.

They have no intention of ever going back to Mexico.

Citizen Staff Writer Claudine LoMonaco contributed to this article.