Illegal Immigrants: Where do they get the money?
This Sacramento Bee story about two Border Patrol agents includes a story I've heard before: "One 24-year-old Brazilian woman said she paid $12,000 to be taken across the border in "a police car."
I've heard similar stories many times, but I'm inclined to disbelieve them. Not so much the police car part, but the money. Where do they get it to begin with?
I'd be hard pressed to come up with a couple thousand dollars to get out of the country. If they lived somewhere they could save up that kind of money, why would they want to use it coming to the U.S.? Seems to me they'd have a pretty decent lifestyle to begin with if they were making that much.
And then to risk it making an illegal border crossing? What if they get caught? They lose it all. Doesn't make sense. Maybe some of you can clear this up for me?
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:43 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
They borrow, save, and sell everything they own, in a gambit for a better life. It's an all-or-nothing wager when they cross the border. I admire their bravery.
Or maybe they WORK and save and sell everything, before coming here and WORKING for a living. Everyone's story is different, but historically immigrants work much harder in their strive for a better life than people from established families.
Some Americans are so unfamiliar with work these days that they wonder, out loud, on a blog, how people get money!!! Sad state of afairs....
Still, to spend that much money on a one shot deal makes no sense. You could spend a few hundred of it on a plane ticket, land in Chicago, and then get lost with the rest of the money.
Chinese pay as much as $70,000 US to get smuggled into the country... To "fly into Chicago" you need a passport and tourist visa, which illegal immigrants can't get; that's why they have to pay the big bucks!
phd,
are they illegal immigrants before they leave their country? why can't they get a visa? $12K ought to get you a visa, don't you think?
Exactly. If they were able to work and save that kind of money, why shouldn't they be able to get in here legally? And, if they were those same type of people, why would they throw their money away on one iffy chance to make it into this country?
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