转贴：为什么还有这么多同胞冒着生命危险要偷渡到美国来

By Sebastian Rotella
Chicago Tribune 

NOGALES, Ariz. — Amid an overall drop in arrests of illegal crossers at the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities report an almost ten-fold spike in arrests of clandestine migrants from China in the southern Arizona desert.

The Border Patrol in the Tucson sector -- the busiest smuggling corridor on the international line -- has caught at least 261 Chinese crossers this year, compared with an average of 32 during the past four years, officials say.

"Lately we have been catching more Chinese than Central Americans in Nogales," said Agent Juventino Pacheco of the U.S. Customs' international liaison unit in Nogales.

The increase remains but a fraction of the overall activity at the Nogales station. This year, the Tucson sector that encompasses the Nogales station recorded 226,000 apprehensions -- a 24 percent decline that reflects the impact of the U.S. economic crisis and tougher enforcement, officials say. The majority of those arrested were Mexicans.

In the lexicon of the Border Patrol, Chinese immigrants belong to a rarefied category known as OTMs: Other than Mexicans. Although just a small percentage of border crossers, OTMs are big business for smuggling gangs that overlap increasingly with Mexico's violent drug mafias.

Compared with the approximately $1,500 in smuggling fees paid by Mexicans, fees for Central Americans and South Americans reach $6,000 for the trek across the dangerous, sun-seared landscape. A group of bewildered Haitians intercepted in Tucson after three nights hiking in circles in a canyon had coughed up $10,000, with another $10,000 due on arrival in the Chicago area.

Chinese pay the most of all. They often work off fees said to be between $30,000 and $70,000 over the course of several years as indentured servants in the sweat shops and kitchens of New York and other cities.

Enforcement officials say the reason behind the increase is not clear. At the border, facts are elusive. Statistical barometers are imperfect. Differing interpretations, political spin and the mysteries of the criminal underworld complicate the picture.