Debbie Nathan

I still get asked about David, whom I wrote about in New York Magazine a couple of years ago. He’s the undocumented Mexican who was living in a basement with over two dozen other immigrants. People wonder how he’s doing. David and one of his former roommates, Jose, keep in touch because they live near me, in Washington Heights. So here’s the latest.

They got kicked out of the basement several months ago when the apartment building was sold and the new owner decided to follow codes. David’s girlfriend is still in Colombia, stringing him along, and he’s the patient type. For female companionship, he and Jose still hang out at that dime-a-dance place in Inwood, which just expanded into a bigger building but has the same girls working. One of them hooked up with a 60-year-old customer and they got married. David quit his restaurant job and now works as a truck mechanic. Jose is in construction and apartment remodeling, which he says are booming here in NYC. If you want to know the state of the economy go ask the illegals. Invite them to dinner.

David and Jose came over on Thanksgiving. Over turkey and trimmings with some Bailey’s, they also provided updates on the military aspect of life these days for the undocumented in New York.

Jose recounted being on the street in Queens last month and witnessing what he described as an immigration raid conducted on a main thoroughfare. He said police were involved. I found this hard to believe, since NYC has a policy prohibiting cops from checking immigration status. After David and Jose left and the dishes were washed, I got on the Net and did some checking.

First thing I found was a squib from the New York Post, describing an October 14 raid on a “phony-green-card ring” in Queens that netted some 40 suspects. The Post crowed that the raid “was kick-started by a story by Post reporter Douglas Montero,” who went undercover last year to show how easy it is to buy fake documents.

The Post article was short, sweet, and — of course — in English.

Over at the Spanish-language El Diario and other ethnic outlets, however, things were far lengthier and more distasteful.

Here’s my summary, translated:

It was less a raid than a dragnet: Police and FBI agents threw fencing around an entire block in Jackson Heights and started questioning people trapped inside. Yes, authorities were looking for sellers of fake drivers licenses and social security cards — items commonly purchased by immigrants so they can work. But the dragnet provoked rumors that other people besides forgery vendors were being busted, simply because they’d got caught up in the fencing and were undocumented. The operation took place on 84th Street and Roosevelt Avenue, a busy shopping area. It caused panic.

This was Sunday at noon. The 2010 World Cup Soccer playoffs were starting, and Roosevelt Avenue’s bars and restaurants were jammed with fans parked in front of teles. As rumors spread about the raid, frightened people streamed in, seeking refuge from the fencing and police.

The operation ended at 2 p.m., but for hours afterward Roosevelt Avenue was deserted. Even the 5 p.m. soccer match between Brazil and Colombia failed to re-enliven the street. Storekeepers complained that sales were down. “There’s a lot of fear,” said one business owner.

Jose was still frightened a month later, at my Thanksgiving table.

A few days after the dragnet, David said, he and Jose were in a cafe near the West Village. While they were waiting for their order, in walked two men in ICE uniforms (ICE is “Immigration & Customs Enforcement” — the new, official name for what Mexicans call “la migra”).

David and Jose were petrified. They sat stock still at their table, trying to be cool. Waiting, just waiting. Here’s what finally happened.

The ICE agents ordered some food. To go. It came. They went. David and Jose finished their meal.

Back at the Thanksgiving table, we changed the subject to Creedence Clearwater (Jose has been trying to understand the lyrics to “Cotton Fields”).

I later vowed to spend more time on IndyMedia’s “Voices that Must Be Heard” site (click here). “Voices” is a translated, continually updated digest of the best of the ethnic press in New York City. It regularly covers newspapers in dozens of languages. Reading Voices weekly, you get a pretty good idea of what’s going on in our immigrant communities — and sometimes not just in New York.

Take that quick item I wrote a few months ago about male smugglers — coyotes — being nicer to female smugglees than they used to be (click here). Well, according to a recent Voices That Must Be Heard piece, translated from El Diario (click here), it’s not just that guy coyotes are becoming more sensitive. It’s also that the human trafficking profession is shifting gender: these days, lots of smugglers are women.

They talk in the Diario article about how they can take care of migrant moms and children better than male coyotes can, because the women smugglers turn their own abodes into safe houses, providing their customers tasty, home-cooked meals and comfy beds. Female smugglers also try to devise better ways for their clients to travel north than those yucky treks through the deadly but macho desert that no normal girl and her babies wants to bother with. (For a recent, very moving description of what such people leave behind when they make those terrible crossings, click here.)

It won’t be long before big, beefy Vicente Fernandez types will also choose women coyotes over their own sex. Real man may not eat quiche. But they still go for a nice bowl of pozole casero and clean sheets en route to Gringoland.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 4:18 pm and is filed under MexUSA: Border Crossing Words & Photos, Uncategorized, media, photos, sexual politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.