Illegal Immigrants Shopping Border Sectors Amid Unpredictable American Border Policy
By Todd Bensman on March 30, 2021
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — When Anderson Castaneda left his native Honduras in October 2020, betting that a victorious President Joe Biden would open the borders wide, this medium-sized northern city of 165,000 across from Eagle Pass, Texas, was hardly his first choice.
Nor even a close second or third. In fact, Castaneda had never even heard of the place until after he’d first tried on for size the crowded, dangerous, and cartel-controlled crossing boom town of Tijuana, then Mexicali and Nogales after that didn’t work out.
Cartel violence either spooked him, or Border Patrol on the U.S. side caught and returned him under the Trump-era pandemic emergency expulsion policy still in effect for single men like him. So Castaneda started shopping for more forgiving Mexican staging and American reception areas, hopscotching all along the southern border until he found Piedras Negras, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. The city’s name translates to “black stonesâ€, for nearby coal deposits.
“According to all of my countrymen, Piedras is easier; there’s a lot of criminal elements in the other ports — kidnappings, murders ...†he told CIS six days after arriving and trying unsuccessfully to cross twice. “It’s just word of mouth from people I run into.â€
https://cis.org/Bensman/Illegal-Immigrants-Shopping-Border-Sectors-Amid-Unpredictable-American-Border-Policy
