Out of detention. Now what?
( Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times ) Just after being released from a U.S. immigration detention center, four men from India discuss their next move at the Greyhound bus depot in Harlingen, Texas. They were arrested trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Most Indian nationals caught entering cite "credible fear," pleading that if they are deported to their home country they will be persecuted. Most are set free on bonds of $10,000 to $40,000 and the promise to return for a political asylum hearing. Many take buses from here and disappear into the underground labor pool throughout the U.S.
Making the call
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) Struggling with their poor English, two Indian citizens use pay telephones at the Greyhound bus depot in Harlingen. They were set free on bond after being arrested trying to enter the U.S. from Mexico. Officials say thousands of Indian nationals are being smuggled into the U.S.. The cause of the surge from India during the past year is unclear. Most apply for political asylum.
Document check
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) U.S. Border Patrol agents check documents of passengers about to depart from the Greyhound bus station in Harlingen. The Texas border town is a major corridor for illegal immigrants, but the recent influx of people from India has been a surprise.
Planning the next move
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) Two young Chinese women sort out travel plans at the Harlingen bus station. They were among a group of men from India arrested while being smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico. They are free on bond pending immigration hearings.
Which coin?
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) An Indian citizen tries to figure out which coin to use in a pay telephone at the Greyhound bus depot in Harlingen.
Keeping watch
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) U.S. Border Patrol agents wait to check passenger documents on the next departing bus from Harlingen. The Greyhound depot has become a way station for Indian citizens released on bond after being arrested while trying to enter Texas from Mexico. Some end up in local motels. Others are taken in by friends or relatives in other states. Many never return for their asylum hearings.
On their way
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) Indian men walk to a taxi that will take them to a motel in Harlingen. Some stay in motels owned by Indian expatriates, who help them with plans to go elsewhere in the U.S. An intricate smuggling network is bringing thousands of Indian nationals to the United States via South America and Mexico. Most apply for political asylum.
Leaving town
(Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times) Clutching their only posessions in plastic bags, Indian citizens wave to fellow countrymen departing from the downtown bus station in Harlingen after they posted bonds and were released from an immigration detention center.
Surge of immigrants from India baffles border officials in Texas
Thousands from India have entered Texas illegally from Mexico in the last year. Most are Sikhs who claim religious persecution at home.
By Richard Marosi and Andrew Becker
Thousands of immigrants from India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling detention centers and triggering investigations.
The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.
Hundreds have been released on their own recognizance or after posting bond. They catch buses or go to local Indian-run motels before flying north for the final leg of their months-long journeys.
"It was long … dangerous, very dangerous," said one young man wearing a turban outside the bus station in the Rio Grande Valley town of Harlingen.
The Indian migration in some ways mirrors the journeys of previous waves of immigrants from far-flung places, such as China and Brazil, who have illegally crossed the U.S. border here. But the suddenness and still-undetermined cause of the Indian migration baffles many border authorities and judges.
The trend has caught the attention of anti-terrorism officials because of the pipeline's efficiency in delivering to America's doorstep large numbers of people from a troubled region. Authorities interview the immigrants, most of whom arrive with no documents, to ensure that people from neighboring Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries are not slipping through.
There is no evidence that terrorists are using the smuggling pipeline, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials said.
The influx shows signs of accelerating: About 650 Indians were arrested in southern Texas in the last three months of 2010 alone. Indians are now the largest group of immigrants other than Latin Americans being caught at the Southwest border.
The migration is the "most significant" human-smuggling trend being tracked by U.S. authorities, said Kumar Kibble, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. In 2009, the Border Patrol arrested only 99 Indians along the entire Southwest border.
Source: Los Angeles Times
If you cannot see the images above, please use the LA times link below
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-border-indians-pictures,0,1181364.photogallery
