The Train of Death
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I sought out that more than the horrific things that happened to migrants along the way -- the gangster who rob and rape them, the bandits who do the same, the corrupt cops who deport them back to Guatemala. I had focused before a lot on the train itself and how because migrants get on and off the trains while they’re moving to avoid immigration authorities in Mexico, they stumble or fall from train and get cut up by the train. They lose arms and legs. There’s a lot of depressing stuff going on, but I wanted to focus on uplifting things they experience equally.
MJ: Is there much camaraderie among the migrants on the trains?
SN: Yes. A lot of the adults look out for younger kids. I rode with a 12-year-old boy who was going to San Diego to find his mother, who had left for the north when he was one year old. A lot of older teenagers and adults would look out for him. Children have certain advantages because they’re smaller, and they can run fast and they can hide. They also are more successful at begging for food and water. But they sometimes need the protection of these adults. Adults would share water or food, and look out for one another and yell warnings to one another. But ultimately often when authorities showed up, and it was time to run, it each man, woman, or child for themselves. It was survival.
MJ: What would you say was the biggest challenge in reporting the story?
SN: The most difficult part was not being able to help people along the tracks, people who were desperate, hungry, thirsty, people who wanted to call their loved ones. I often had a cell phone in my purse. I would get asked for money dozens of times every day. As a reporter, I was already changing the situation with my presence, in terms of what the authorities were doing. I felt that unless someone was in imminent danger, I could not try to help them. I could not change the story more than it was already being changed. I largely refrained from helping people, and that’s very, very difficult to do.
MJ: Was there anything you wished you could have included in the book, but did not?
SN: I wish I would have gone back and ridden on top of the trains again. With each train ride, I discovered something new about a particular life on that train. There’s a whole pecking order and a whole way that life evolves on top of these trains, like it does in any small world. With every ride, I captured bits and pieces of that, but I wish I could have done more of that. I rode on 7 trains and in all I rode through 13 of Mexico’s 31 states. I traveled 1600 miles, and I did half of that on top of these trains, but I wish I could have spent more time in that world. It’s a fascinating world. But I think my husband would have killed me if I had gone back again. (laughs)
MJ: There are so many stories written about undocumented immigrants, and the points of debate on both sides have been repeated ad nauseum. What were some misconceptions that you wanted to dispel with your story or some different angles that had not been explored before?
SN: I think one of the things that really struck me was the incredible determination among these immigrants coming north on the train. I remember interviewing one teenager who was being deported again from Mexico to Guatemala. He was going north to find his mother. He had been robbed by bandits along the tracks, and one woman in his party had been gang raped. He had been deported 27 times. He was talking about after being deported, he was going to try attempt number 28. And he was going to reach his mother. I found that difficult to get my mind around, the level of determination. When you see that up close, you really question how many border patrol agents is it gonna take to stop people who are this desperate to come. That’s relevant as the senate gets set to debate competing immigration bills that include stronger border enforcement and temporary worker programs.
In terms of the debate, two things that struck me were that unfortunately immigration most hurts the most needy Americans, Americans who are native-born and do not have a high school degree, and that means largely African Americans and previous waves of Latino immigrants. Their wages and their employability have declined as a result of the huge influx of immigrants. I find that troubling. Another aspect that surprised me and I found troubling was that a lot of immigrant women are coming to the U.S. and leaving their children behind because they want to improve the lives of their children. But when they reunify, these children often feel they were abandoned by their mothers and they grow resentful and grow to hate their mothers. Too often, these immigrant women lose what’s most important to them, which is the love of their child.
