Migrants in border town hope Senate approves immigration bill

By Olga R. Rodriguez
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo by Victor Sira
2:36 p.m. May 25, 2006

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Migrants waiting for nightfall in this blistering hot border town expressed hope Thursday that Congress will pass reforms allowing them to work legally and gain U.S. citizenship. But they seemed determined to cross the Rio Grande, with or without help from Washington.

Jeffrey Javier Caballero, 26, said he had a construction job lined up in North Carolina and would cross once a friend wires money to pay a smuggler. He hoped to get into the U.S. in time to benefit from what may be the most sweeping immigration reform in two decades.

“If they approve a guest worker program and you're in Honduras, how are you going to take advantage of it?” said Caballero, who had a black eye from being beaten and robbed by bandits after arriving atop a cargo train at the last stop before crossing the river to Laredo, Texas.

Legislation offering millions of illegal immigrants a chance at U.S. citizenship moved to the brink of Senate passage Thursday in a rare bipartisan compromise. Next come tough negotiations with the House of Representatives, which passed a bill focused on border security that would make all illegal immigrants subject to felony charges, rather than merely civil deportation procedures.

Migrants preparing to cross Thursday seemed to be closely following the developments in Washington.