The Hardships of Immigrants in Enrique’s Journey

Each year, hundreds of people from Central America decide to migrate on a dangerous journey through Mexico to the United States. Every migrant who decides to travel to the United States goes knowing their life is at risk. They make this their journey hoping to reunite with their loved ones and start a better life in the U.S. However there is a high-risk of being caught by the dozens of policemen throughout the immigration checkpoints on the journey made through the train route.

In the book, Enrique’s journey, Sonia Nazario goes in-depth as she explains the major crisis being explored, which is the separation of families through immigration and the dangerous situations they go through on their journeys. Take the case of Enrique, during the time on the freight trains. This was his 8th attempt to reach el Norte, he decided to board a train In Chiapas which wasn’t a good idea knowing the circumstances and consequences he might face on the way. “In Chiapas, never ride alone. His best odds are at night or in fog, when Enrique can see immigration agents’ flashlights but they cannot see him. Storms are best, even when they bring lightning and he is riding on a tank car full of gas; rain keeps immigration agents indoors”. This quote from the book helps support the claim I made earlier due to Enrique putting his life at risk knowing how easy it is to get caught by agents. Later On that same train ride the immagration agents see the migrants and start to chase them down making them get off. This excerpt from the book explains the conditions these migrants go through just to survive and continue their journeys north. “The train Lurches sideways. Enrique leaps from car to car, finally landing on a box car. The train stops, he lays flat, facedown, arms spread-eagle, hoping la migra won’t see him, but several agents do“. This except from the book helps support this claim by showing the dangers of being caught by agents and the possibility of being sent back to Guatemala. This kind of situation has happened to many different migrants as they get chased down by agents while getting rocks and sticks thrown at them. Luckily Enrique went through the bushes and escaped, however most of the time people don’t make it through.

Crossing the border is one of the toughest parts due to so much border patrol and having to cross huge rivers to get to U.S land. Many families attempt to cross but end up getting stuck in currents and having to be pulled out by agents. “Migrants have for years traversed the Rio Grande on makeshift rafts to cross illegally into the United States. But facing a surge of families from Central America, border-patrol agents are now pulling dozens of migrants, including young children, from the harsh current of the river almost every day” (the migrants risking it all on the deadly Rio Grande). Another huge problem when crossing the border is the numerous amount of death cases due to Dehydration and starvation which are rapidly increasing. These migrants travel miles and miles in the burning sun with little food and water that they take hoping it will last them through the desert.