Illegal immigrants increasingly go north

Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:08pm EST

By Robin Emmott

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants from Latin America are heading deeper into the United States to find work and avoid deportation as crackdowns in border states like Texas and Arizona make life more difficult for them.

The U.S. Border Patrol has ramped up surveillance along the porous Mexican border aided by National Guard troops since 2005, while police and state legislatures have increasingly targeted illegal immigrants in some border states.

"Texas is crawling with Border Patrol agents and the locals are so tuned in that if they see you walking down the street, they phone the Border Patrol, who come and deport you," said Joe Reyes, 45, who lived for seven years in Houston before being deported in November.

"I'm heading for North Carolina if I can get back across," he said at the Catholic-run migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.