Burning Atlanta

As predicted, as expected, and as being seen, illegals are getting the word and fewer are making the trip. Some are targeting other states. Just read a bit about Canada needing workers. Oh, those poor bastards. Just wait until that word gets around and illegals start getting established.

Excellent.

But that illegal migration, once as natural as the changing of the seasons, has become a different prospect 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.

Jesica Garcia Saenz, the 17-year-old reigning beauty queen of this town of 7,500, said she feels the inevitable pull of that distant city. Her siblings, cousins and uncles are already in Atlanta. But such longing is tinged with foreboding.

"You feel lonely because there's barely any people left here," she said. "But then they say that life over there is hard now. They say they don't want to give us jobs, that they want to kick us out." Pathetic. We've been supporting Mexico for ages.

Among the proposed measures making the most waves in Mexico is the 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 their cars, residents in Mexico say. Good. Then they can steal cars locally instead of stealing them from us.

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. We need to spread more of those rumors.

Many residents believe the wave of anti-immigrant fervor was sparked by the mass protests in the summer of 2006 demanding reform to American immigration laws.

"That was a mistake," said Buenrostro. "They weren't in their own country. Maybe that's why." Certainly didn't win friends marching around with foreign flags demanding "your rights."

Jesus Lorenzo Cortes, 41, a former line cook at an upscale Atlanta restaurant, said he left two years ago after the Georgia Legislature passed Senate Bill 529.

Cortes said the bill, which requires verification of legal status for certain taxpayer services and prevents employers from claiming the wages of illegal workers as a state tax deduction, made working without proper documents more difficult.

"Many of us left after these laws came in," he said. "They are like taxes on illegality." Huh? Taxes? No, more like "If you've got illegals working for you it's time to wave bye-bye."

Since then, Cortes has returned to San Marcos, where he and his older brother, also a regular Atlanta migrant, plot their next move. For the brothers, Atlanta has been a way to pull their family out of poverty, and they hope, to give their children a different destiny.

With money earned from nearly two decades of working in Atlanta, the brothers have started construction on a six-bedroom home, opened a small business selling wood in San Marcos, and most importantly, sent their children to high school and college. 6 bedrooms AND sent their kids to college??

"We are very thankful to the U.S.," said Antonio Cortes. "If the U.S. was in a war and needed soldiers, I'd go, it's given me so much." Really? Well, asshole, we're in a war right now.