Mexican migrants fear changes in Georgia

From the AJC:

[I]llegal migration, once as natural as the seasons, has changed lately. A combination of tough Georgia laws, a sharp escalation in deportations and a slew of measures wending their way through the Georgia Legislature has had a profound impact on towns that send their migrants to the Atlanta area.

[A prospective illegal immigrant in Mexicao said: "T]hey say that life over there [in Atlanta] is hard now. They say they don't want to give us jobs, that they want to kick us out."

Just two years ago, residents here say, such dread of life in Atlanta did not exist.

In two pueblos, Ejido Modelo Emiliano Zapata in the central agricultural state of Jalisco and San Marcos on Mexico's sweltering Pacific coast, the reputation of metro Atlanta has undergone a transformation.

For decades, both have been sending the vast majority of their immigrants to Georgia as undocumented workers. Both towns survive largely because of the money sent home by their fathers and brothers working in Atlanta.

Both places are watching with great worry the changes in the state's political climate.

Among the proposed measures making the most waves in Mexico is a proposal to allow police to seize cars driven by illegal immigrants who violate traffic laws. That measure, sitting before a Georgia House subcommittee, has scared migrants in Atlanta, causing many to send their vehicles back home to avoid losing them, residents in Mexico say.

And rumors are flying through both towns that the children of undocumented immigrants will not be granted citizenship even if they are born on U.S. soil. A Georgia measure would merely urge the U.S. Congress to pass such a law, since states don't have that authority. But, as in a transnational game of telephone, the original news got twisted as it arrived across the border.

And the number of migrants who return to visit has plummeted, residents say, because of increased concern over crossing the border. At the same time, the number of migrants who have returned permanently has gone up because of fear of raids, deportations or disgust with the new laws and policies.

But despite the growing feeling that Georgia has become hostile to immigrants, the tug of Atlanta remains strong in these communities. It is still home to relatives who can receive and orient newer immigrants. And in both towns, despite worries about creeping recession, there is the strong perception that there is work to be had in Atlanta.

In San Marcos, residents and former migrants say the rash of tough measures in Georgia isn't slowing the exodus from the town -- population about 45,000 -- but has begun to spark interest in other states. Locals estimate currently several thousand residents of San Marcos are in metro Atlanta.

"The people will keep leaving here, they don't know any other way," said Carlos Villanueva, the former head of a club of San Marcos migrants in Atlanta.

"But people may be going to other states besides Georgia. Many people still consider Atlanta a developing city, but things are getting bad."