As National Guard troops help secure the Mexican border, illegal immigrants are forced to use more and more dangerous routes.

BY BARBARA BARRETT
McClatchy News Service

LOS ALGODONES, Mexico - Crossings become more perilous

Not five minutes after the boatload of migrants slipped across the Colorado River at dusk, the ''dogcatchers'' arrived.

First came U.S. Border Patrol trucks, tearing down a dirt road and cutting their headlights. Then the helicopter with its deafening blades, dipping and circling, casting spotlights across the water and the mountainside, again and again and again.

On the Mexican side, above the town of Los Algodones, Francisco López watched and listened. For a month, he said, he has been waiting. He sleeps under the shade of trees, scrounges food. Three times he almost crossed.

''They're here day and night,'' said López, 42, who traveled from the state of Michoacán, hoping to reach New York. ``When I got here, I was surprised to see so much force on the other side.''

The show of force now includes Operation Jump Start, which President Bush announced in May. About 6,000 National Guard troops are coming to the border, to reinforce the Border Patrol officers and trucks that Mexicans call perreras: dogcatchers.

The deployment is meant to discourage migrants from risking the dash into the United States. The increased security is pushing them into remote areas -- including harsh desert and mountains -- forcing more to use smugglers and leading those who are caught to make repeated attempts that sap their strength and money. Many walk for days with little food or water.

''Short term, you might see more deaths, because they think they can beat the system,'' said Lt. Col. Randy Powell, the commander of the North Carolina National Guard's 252nd Combine Arms Battalion. Over time, he said, the death toll should drop.

Word has spread throughout Mexico: The Guard is coming.

TRIP COSTS $1,500

''I read the newspapers,'' said Héctor Encinas, 29, who lives in San Luis Río Colorado, just south of San Luis, Ariz. He used to cross routinely to work in the United States, paying $300 a trip. Now the price is $1,500. He used to help others, but no more.

''It's more hard right now,'' Encinas said, standing in the shade near an opening in the border wall where three Border Patrol trucks were parked. ``They got a fence, more soldiers, more Border Patrol.''

Of the Guard, he said, ''They're cool. They're cool.'' He knows the troops aren't allowed to make apprehensions, just to call in border agents.

Still, in the more urban Mexican crossing points south of Arizona, something has changed.

In Los Algodones, tucked in the crook of the border with California and Yuma, Ariz., the travelers who hope to sneak across the border -- known as pollos, or chickens -- gather at dusk in the park.

Fabiola Salazar, 25, figures the smugglers -- whom the locals call polleros or chicken herders -- make up 30 percent of the summer business at her family's grocery. Every morning, the smugglers buy water and food for the journey.

Lately, she said, business has been way down.

What sends migrants farther out are the images of the National Guard standing watch. The North Carolina Guard troops are scattered in strategic spots along the western half of the Arizona border, including some posts so distant they're best reached by helicopter.

Near San Luis, Ariz., the troops work under camouflage nets, setting up observation points every quarter-mile on a levee near the Colorado River, above stretches of dirt and fields of tall, swaying grasses.

The scrutiny is pushing migrants toward a land so vast that travelers can walk three days before crossing a paved road. During heat like last week's, with temperatures climbing toward 115 degrees, the migrants can't carry enough water.

The Sonoran Desert is littered with their castoffs: empty water bottles, shoes, jackets.

The daytime heat is blistering, and only a very brave man would walk the rugged landscape at night, said the Rev. Robin Hoover, the founder of Tucson-based Humane Borders Inc.

MORE WOMEN, CHILDREN

Because more men are staying in the United States, more are sending for their families, and more women and children are crossing.

In 2003, Hoover said, 11 percent of migrants apprehended were women. Yet they accounted for 25 percent of the deaths.

In eastern Arizona, the bodies go to the Pima County medical examiner, where Bruce Parks holds on to them until they're identified.

Last week, Parks, the chief medical examiner, had about 120, some dating from 2004.

''It's obviously a terrible tragedy for relatively young people to be dying under these circumstances,'' Parks said, hours after an autopsy on 11-year-old Olivia. ``This may be the year we see a downturn. That would be nice.''