Many at shelter in Mexico not giving up goal to go north

By TYCHE HENDRICKS
San Francisco Chronicle
2007-03-12 00:00:00

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico -- As night fell and migrants at the shelter behind the Holy Family Catholic Church prepared to bed down, Roberto Valenzuela threw his powerful baritone into the old folk song "Cielito Lindo."

"Ay, ay, ay, ay!"

The other men _ most of whom had landed at the shelter after being caught by the U.S. Border Patrol as they tried to cross into the United States _ paused to listen: "Canta y no llores!" Valenzuela sang. "Sing and don't cry!"

Valenzuela, 47, had made his living for years as a mariachi in Phoenix and Los Angeles. He would head north illegally for a few months and be set for the rest of the year. But by late fall, the Border Patrol had caught him twice and he planned to try crossing once more before heading home to Huachinera, two hours south.

Stepped-up enforcement by the Border Patrol and National Guard appears to be deterring some would-be crossers. From October to February, the Border Patrol made 30 percent fewer arrests of people trying to slip across the border this year than it did in the same period last year.