By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 03/01/2009 12:00:00 AM MST
More on the violence in Juárez
EL PASO -- Being shot at in two attacks meant for others in less than a year persuaded an American executive to quit his Juárez maquiladora job.
Other incidents targeting fellow workers further compounded the terrifying experiences: bodies left outside the company, an attempted carjacking and two robberies at gunpoint.
"The first time I was caught in crossfire was on Gomez Morin, a major thoroughfare in Juárez. I heard gunshots, saw a car with bullet holes and people running, and I just kept on driving," said the former executive who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. "Things only got worse after that. There were military everywhere. Another time, we couldn't get back home because protesters had blocked the international bridges. It got to the point where it just wasn't worth it anymore. I decided my family and my life were more important than any material possessions."
The brutal violence in Juárez has altered life for many people on both sides of the border as chaos reigns in the city of 1.3 million.
For example, Sterling Bassett learned recently that several families from Mexico had moved into his upscale neighborhood "and brought their bodyguards."
Several vehicles in the neighborhood have Chihuahua state plates.
Bassett said he called police after watching a man inside a truck parked across
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his home for about six months. "I called the police after our property manager told me about the bodyguards," he said. "If he was guarding someone who felt they needed protection, I was concerned someone might come here to shoot up the place."
The police talked to the man in the truck; soon after, he left.
Police spokesman Javier Sambrano said the man told police officers that he was working for someone at the complex and was not armed.
"It was not clear if he was a bodyguard. He said he did errands and was a driver for someone," Sambrano said.
To avoid problems, Sambrano said, anyone who hires a bodyguard should notify the police. If someone plans to use armed bodyguards, those bodyguards must comply with gun-permit and licensing laws.
In past two years, as violence reached unprecedented levels in Mexico, thousands of Mexican citizens have fled their country for El Paso and even Canada.
"It started in May of 2008 when we started getting people from Juárez who wanted asylum because of the violence," said Ray Rojas, executive director of Las Americas Immigration Advocacy Center in El Paso. "They've been coming ever since at a rate of about 15 per week. We deal with refugee and asylum cases from other countries, such as China and Somalia, but we've never seen anything like this for Mexico."
Rojas said 300 Juárez families cleaned out an El Paso charity of furniture. "I've heard 3,000 families from Mexico may have come to El Paso," he said.
But receiving asylum in the United States is difficult. Petitions can take more than a year to process, and immigration courts do not grant asylum easily.
Generally, petitioners must prove they are persecuted by a government because of their religion or political beliefs, or because they belong to certain social class. They also have to prove that they are not safe in any other part of their homeland.
Las Americas has three formal Mexico asylum cases in progress; the rest are undergoing review.
Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services had 523 pending asylum cases filed by Mexican citizens; 19 others were granted, and one was denied.
"There have been no recent trends evidenced by the number of applications from Mexico," said Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, regional spokeswoman for the Citizenship and Immigration Services in Dallas. She added that the statistics did not show the reasons for the asylum requests.
Rojas said, "We are recommending for people to hold out here until the violence subsides. Some of them have families in the United States and the financial means to wait."
According to an article this month in Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper, 9,000 people from Mexico are seeking refuge in Canada because of the violence.
Hector Padilla, a professor at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez, said most of the victims killed over the past two years have been people from low socio economic backgrounds. Exceptions include police commanders, a federal administrator, journalists and lawyers.
Gustavo De la Rosa Hickerson, an official with the Chihuahua State Commission for Human Rights, said he knows of a judge from Chihuahua state who had to seek refuge in El Paso after he received death threats in Mexico.
Officials said another judge, Flor Mireya Aguilar Casas, a former assistant prosecutor in Juárez, was kidnapped Wednesday and freed the next day after judicial officers paid an undisclosed ransom.
Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6140.
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