SASABE, MEXICO — The dusty Grand Central Station of illegal journeys into the United States lies on the fringes of this village near the Arizona border, in a junkyard littered with demolished cars.
Migrants wearing backpacks meet smugglers here and pile into pickup trucks for bumpy rides to crossing points across the vast Altar Valley.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday April 05, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 36 words Type of Material: Correction
Border enforcement: An article in Section A on March 21 about increased enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border gave the name of Michael Nicley, the retired chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector, as Michael Nicely.
But these days many of those who set out to cross the border soon return, unsuccessful and exhausted. Hundreds who manage to cross each day are apprehended swiftly on the U.S. side.
Crossing has become so difficult that the number of people coming to Sasabe has dropped by more than two-thirds from last year, according to Mexican officials.
The turn of events here in the busiest illegal-immigration corridor on the border -- where more than 1 million migrants have entered in recent years -- is among the most dramatic examples of how tougher border enforcement is disrupting the flow of migrants.
Previous crackdowns have served only to shift illegal crossings to new areas, but so far this year there are no signs that the border has sprung another leak. Apprehensions have decreased in every area along the Southwest border, in some places by more than two-thirds.
Overall, apprehensions from October 2006 through last month were down 30% from the same period a year earlier, from 433,446 to 304,071, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Interviews with dozens of migrants as well as medical workers, experts and activists on both sides of the border back up the assertions of U.S. and Mexican authorities that fewer people are trying to cross and that those who do try are more likely to get caught.
Late last month, Jesus Jose Bosquez, 25, and 200 others wandered in the hills for two days trying to get to Tucson.
"The Border Patrol was everywhere," said Bosquez, who was interviewed after he gave up and returned to Sasabe.
Bosquez has crossed illegally several times but now doubts whether he will ever be able to return to his wife and kids in Chicago.
"The situation is very difficult," he said.
Rite of passage
No one claims any permanent disruptions of migration yet. The migrant experience is almost a rite of passage for poor, young Mexicans, and hundreds of thousands still try to cross, many successfully. Experts point out that similar drops in apprehensions in years past were later followed by surges.
