Billionaires get richer: Data shows more than a THIRD of the U.S. is on welfare handouts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billionaires get richer as record number of Silicon Valley residents fall into poverty Huge disparities on show in the Silicon Valley Homelessness rose 20 percent in two years and the average annual income for Hispanics fell to a new low of $19,000 Meanwhile, the region's top tech earners inched up the Forbes annual list of the richest people on the planet released this week On a morning the stock market was sailing to a record high and a chilly storm was blowing into Silicon Valley, Wendy Carle stuck her head out of the tent she calls home to find city workers duct taping an eviction notice to her flimsy, flapping shelter walls. 'I have no idea where I'm going to go,' she said, tugging on her black sweatshirt over her brown curls and scooping up Hero, an albino dog. She glanced at the glimmering windows on a cluster of high-tech office buildings just blocks away and shook her head. Kicked out: Wendy Clarke, left, holds her neighbor's dog Hero as she is handed an eviction notice by San Jose city worker Rita Tabaldo as city worker Mark Ruffing, center, attaches a notice to a Clarke's tent at a tent city in San Jose, California 'Did you know Google shares hit $840 each this morning?' she asked. 'I just heard that on the radio.' Carle, who did not want to give her age, used to manage apartments. Today she lives on a Supplemental Security Income disability payment of $826 a month due to back and joint problems. The Silicon Valley is adding jobs faster than it has in more than a decade as the tech industry roars back. Stocks are soaring and fortunes are once again on the rise. But a bleaker record is also being set this year: Food stamp participation just hit a 10-year high, homelessness rose 20 percent in two years, and the average income for Hispanics, who make up one in four Silicon Valley residents, fell to a new low of about $19,000 a year. This capped a steady 14 percent drop over the past five years, according to the annual Silicon Valley Index released by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, representing businesses, and the philanthropic Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Simply put, while the ultra-rich are getting even richer, record numbers of Silicon Valley residents are slipping into poverty. 'Cleanup': An eviction notice posted by San Jose city workers is shown on a tree at a tent city in San Jose, last Tuesday 'In the midst of a national economic recovery led by Silicon Valley's resurgence, as measured by corporate profits and record stock prices, something strange is going on in the Valley itself. Most people are getting poorer,' said Cindy Chavez, executive director of San Jose-based Working Partnerships USA, a nonprofit advocating for affordable housing, higher minimum wages and access to health care. Nowhere is this growing disparity more obvious than this sprawling and trash-strewn 28-acre tent city that authorities are trying to clean out. Beneath the sweeping shadow and roar of jets soaring in and out of nearby San Jose's international airport, residents here say times are so tight they have nowhere else to turn. 'This is the most ridiculous place ever,' said Kristina Erbenich, 38, clambering onto her bike, a heavy pack on her back. The former chef said she spent $14,000 on hotel rooms before her savings ran out. 'If everyone around here is so rich, why can't they do something to help?' Aid: Kathy Jackson, CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, gives a tour of the supply area at Second Harvest Food Bank. Record numbers of Silicon Valley residents are slipping into poverty United Way Silicon Valley CEO Carole Leigh Hutton wonders the same thing. 'How is it that in an area so very rich, we have so many people so very poor? Why can't we break that cycle? 'With all the brain power in the Silicon Valley, we should be able to solve these problems. But what we need is the collective will.' The causes for the growing disparity are complex, but largely come down to one thing: a very high cost of living. The median home price is $550,000, and rents average just under $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in this region that is home to many of the nation's wealthiest companies including Facebook, Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Google. For a family of four, just covering basic needs like rent, food, childcare and transportation comes to almost $90,000 a year, according to the nonprofit Insight Center for Community Economic Development. 'The fact is that we have an economy now that's working well only for those at the very top,' said Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. 'Unless we adopt a new approach to economic policy, we're going to continue going down this path, which means growth that does not really benefit the great majority of people in this country.' Nationally, Mishel says the declining value of the federal minimum wage is a major factor driving inequality. On Monday, in an effort to address this, minimum hourly wages will rise from $8 per hour to a new minimum of $10 per hour, the nation's largest minimum wage increase approved by voters last fall. While it's a dramatic shift for tens of thousands of workers, it's a minuscule fraction of the increases top earners in the region enjoyed last year. Going: San Jose city workers Mark Ruffing, left, and Rita Tabaldo attach eviction notices to a tent at a tent city in San Jose Silicon Valley's top tech magnates inched up the Forbes annual list of the richest people on the planet released this week. Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison had a reported net worth of $43 billion, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had about $23 billion each, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was worth an estimated $13.3 billion, and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, had an estimated worth of $10.7 billion. 'The wealth numbers are staggering, they are absolutely staggering,' said Alf Nucifora, who chairs the Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco One in five ultra-wealthy Americans, defined by having a net worth above $30 million, lives in California, stoked by the 'wealth-generating cluster' of the Silicon Valley, according to WealthX, a company that tracks the super-rich. Stanford University, in Palo Alto, boasts 1,173 alumni with a net worth of more than $30 million - only Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have more. 'The Silicon Valley is an ecosystem of human capital, venture capital, risk, an educational infrastructure,' says WealthX president David Friedman. 'All of those things combine into this glorious cocktail of prosperity.' But many residents, even those with college educations, are finding it tougher than ever to make it in the Silicon Valley. Disparity: Kristina Erbenich, right, is handed an eviction notice at a tent city in San Jose. Meanwhile Silicon Valley's top tech magnates inched up the Forbes annual list of the richest people on the planet released this week Before the Great Recession, about 10 percent of people seeking food had at least some college education. Today, one in four who line up at food pantries for bags of free food have been to college. Last year the share of households in Silicon Valley earning less than $35,000 rose two percentage points to 20 percent, according to the 2013 Silicon Valley Index. 'There are millionaires, even billionaires, who sit in their sunrooms watching me work in their gardens and they have no clue what's going on,' said Sherri Bohan, a credentialed horticulturist who ran a landscape gardening firm for 30 years and raised two sons as a single mom. Today, retired and disabled, she picks up a free bag of groceries every week at her local food bank. Without the food she says she would go hungry. Silicon Valley's rich do give, and often significantly, but the money mostly leaves the area. Facebook's Zuckerberg gave $100 million to Newark N.J., public schools in 2010; his $500 million gift to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation last year has yet to be designated. The Google Foundation donated about $11 million in 2011, according to its tax forms, largely to global environmental and health projects. Poverty: Median incomes fell throughout the Silicon Valley. The tent city in San Jose is being removed 'Many people come here to work, but they have no idea what's really going on,' said Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, whose Sobrato Family Foundation - funded by profits gained as a leading real estate and development firm in the region - is the single largest contributor to local charities in the region. 'The companies are generous, but they don't see the need directly in front of them, they want to send their money away.' Phyllis Kizer, a long time high-tech business analyst, is disturbed by the challenges people in her community face. 'Looking at myself, I'm very well paid for what I do, I have no complaints,' she said. Once a week, Kizer heads to a low income school where she sits with children, including recent immigrants, helping them learn to read. 'I love books, and I love teaching,' she said. 'I wanted to pass that on. Some of these children, they can really go far, but we need to help.'

'In many cases Americans can do better on benefits than in an entry level job': Data shows more than a THIRD of the U.S. is on welfare handouts Around 110 million Americans are now on government welfare benefits This equates to more than one third of the country relying on handouts At least 51 million are using food stamps and 83 million are on Medicaid Analysts are calling for the minimum wage to be increased to $10.10 an hour +2 Around 110 million Americans are now receiving government assistance, one third of the country A third of Americans are now on welfare benefits, prompting calls to raise the minimum wage and encourage more people to stay in work. New census data has revealed that around 110 million Americans are receiving government assistance of some kind. The number includes people receiving 'means-tested' federal benefits and subsidies based on income. Those receiving food stamps, subsidised housing and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are also included in the total. At the end of 2012 around 83 million were collecting Medicaid and 51.5 million were on food stamps, with some benefitting from multiple programs. Analysts have raised concerns that the programs are encouraging people to stay at home rather than work. They pointed out that when recipients combine several government assistance programs, in many cases they pay better than going to work. Michael Tanner, from Cato Institute think tank said that in the eight most generous states, the benefits are comparable to a $20 minimum wage. This would exceed the $7.25 minimum wage in most states. 'So in many cases people could actually do better on welfare than they could in an entry level job,' said Mr Tanner. Supporters say the safety net is necessary to keep Americans from living in dire conditions. And many argue that a solution would be to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. 'I think a lot of people would do the jobs when they pay a living wage,' said Melissa Boteach, from the Center for American Progress. 'In addition, there's growing jobs in health care and information technology and energy. There's a lot of places where, if able to make investments, we can really grow our economy in those sectors.' Tanner said there must be a serious effort to put people back to work because the continued growth of government assistance programs is unsustainable. +2 President Obama urged Congress to reinstate jobless benefits for more than a million Americans this year 'You can't in the long run have a society in which you have to rely on a smaller and smaller group of wealth producers who have to support more and more people who are not contributing to that wealth,' he said. The number of people on such benefits is up slightly from 2011. The government still runs a half-trillion dollar deficit, according to the most recent estimates, and the national debt is nearing $18 trillion. Heritage Foundation analyst Rachel Sheffield has criticised President Obama's plan to vastly increase spending on welfare. She also accused the Obama administration of giving Americans less incentive to find work and eventually free themselves from public assistance. 'Unfortunately, the federal government tends to measure welfare success by the number of people receiving benefits,' she said.

INVASION AT THE BORDER: BEYOND THE HEADLINES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INVASION AT THE BORDER The border between the United States and Mexico stretches 3,169 kilometers (1,969 miles), crossing deserts, rivers, towns, and cities from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Every year, an estimated 350 million people legally cross the border, with another 500,000 entering into the United States illegally. No single barrier stretches across the entire border, instead, it is lined with a patchwork of steel and concrete fences, infrared cameras, sensors, drones, and nearly 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents.   The USG has never enforced its southern border and recently there has been a very large breach of thousands of illegal immigrants crossing it. Those who control the Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM) will not allow you know the actual reasons for this recent very large border breach. You will never be able to read the actual reasons this has occurred with thousands of children and adolescents from Mexico and Central America coming into America illegally, many without parents. But you can be completely certain that a porous southern border is exactly what the USG and those in the background who run it actually want now and have wanted for many years. You can also be completely certain that if the USG was really serious about its claimed War on Terror, it would have already established and enforced a real policy of completely sealing all its borders, using the US Military if necessary. And if the USG was really serious, no CIA drug shipments or Coyote traffickers of illegals would be allowed either. The simple fact is this, the USG does not want a sealed Southern Border. This means that without question, the USG is not serious about its claims that it is now engaged in a real War on Terror and has been since 9/11/01. It also means that by implication any Terror that has occurred in America has been done by the USG and Israel who has infiltrated and hijacked it through its espionage fronts like AIPAC, B’nai B’rith, and the like. Otherwise those responsible would have already been brought to justice.   You can also be completely certain the the real Powers That Be who control the USG want the current border porous and immigration laws unenforced. This is in direct and stark contrast to any other nation in the world, including Mexico where those who cross into Mexico illegally and are caught do hard time in jail. The USG does not want to shut of the CIA sponsored illegal drug pipeline from the Mexican Cartels because they are covertly in business with them. Yes, we know for certain that the USG wants a porous border to keep the CIA sponsored, drug pipelines of the Mexican Cartels intact.  This is necessary to keep the CIA black budget fat with drug profits and the Wall Street Banks fat laundering massive amounts of drug money. The Powers that Be (PTB) will not let any USG Official enforce the Rule of Law regarding Illegal CIA Drug Trafficking or regarding the Southern Border. The Powers that Be (PTB) who actually run the USG will not allow any USG Official, elected politician, or Alphabet or LE Officer to enforce the Rule of Law and prosecute the CIA drug Traffickers, any protected Banks who launder the drug money, or any state and local officials who share in the 10% Baksheesh paid off the top. Take the time that Senator Dianne Finestein was provided rock solid information from a credible informant that the Bush Crime Cabal’s (BCC’s) Zapata Trucking was using its LP gas trucks to transport massive amounts of illegal drugs into California from Mexico. Senator Finestein went to the border and this was directly observed by her and recorded on video later aired on 60 Minutes. Even though she made very tough statements expressing a seemingly strong commitment to see that this illegal trafficking was stopped cold, she quickly backed off and the investigation was halted like all others before. You can assume that the Powers That Be (PTB) got to her and made some kind of deal. Was she threatened, blackmailed or just bought off? One can only guess because we don’t know the specifics of why she backed off like so many other Senators, Congresspersons and USG Officials who started to investigate but suddenly quit. As immigrants from Mexico and other Central and South American countries continue to try to find their way into the U.S., Congress is now considering an immigration reform bill called the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013. The bill proposes solutions to current border enforcement problems and paths to citizenship for the estimated 11 million existing illegal immigrants in the U.S. Gathered here are images of the US-Mexico border from the past few years. A section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion project crosses previously pristine desert sands at sunrise on March 14, 2009, between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California. The barrier stands 15 feet tall and sits on top of the sand so it can lifted by a machine and repositioned whenever the migrating desert dunes begin to bury it. The almost seven miles of floating fence cost about $6 million per mile to build.(David McNew/Getty Images) 2 The US-Mexico border fence with Tijuana, Mexico, on the left, the Pacific Ocean in the background. Photographed on February 17, 2012.(U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Josh Denmark) # 3 People hang out on the beach next to the border fence separating Mexico from the U.S. in Tijuana, Mexico, on September 22, 2012.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) # 4 A deported migrant climbs the US-Mexico border fence as he prepares for the 6th annual Marcha Migrante, or Migrant March, in Tijuana, on February 2, 2011. The Tijuana to Mexicali pilgrimage was organized by the group Border Angels to raise awareness on immigration issues. (AP Photo/Guillermo Arias) # 5 U.S. Border Patrol agent Manny Villalobos (center) patrols with other agents along the international border between Mexico and the United States near San Diego, California, on March 26, 2013. (Reuters/Mike Blake) # 6 The US-Mexico border, Mexico on the right and the US on the left, near San Ysidro, California, on February 17, 2012.(U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Josh Denmark) # 7 Soldiers prepare to enter a tunnel during a presentation to the media in Tijuana, on November 16, 2011. Police discovered a "major cross-border drug tunnel" running to California from Mexico, and seized 14 tons of marijuana, authorities said. The tunnel linked warehouses in an industrial park south of San Diego and the Mexican border city of Tijuana. (Reuters/Jorge Duenes) # 8 Electrical breakers inside a cross-border tunnel located underneath a water purifying plant in Tecate, on December 6, 2012. The tunnel, which was still under construction, was found due to an anonymous tip. It has no exit to the U.S. but a ventilation system, electricity and a water pump. Seven people who were found working on the tunnel when it was discovered were arrested by the authorities, reported local media. (Reuters/Jorge Duenes) # 9 Immigrants hide from a border patrol vehicle while waiting for a chance to cross into the United States at the border fence on the outskirts of the Tijuana, on September 19, 2009. (Reuters/Jorge Duenes) # 10 A Predator drone operated by U.S. Office of Air and Marine (OAM), taxis towards the tarmac for a surveillance flight near the Mexican border, on March 7, 2013 from Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The OAM, which is part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flies the unmanned - and unarmed - MQ-9 Predator B aircraft an average of 12 hours per day at around 19,000 feet. The drones, piloted from the ground, search for drug smugglers and immigrants crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 11 Clouds of dust kicked up by border patrol vehicles hang in the air along the US-Mexico border fence as agents carry out special operations on July 30, 2009 near the rural town of Campo, some 60 miles east of San Diego. (David McNew/Getty Images) # 12 Mauricia Horta Fuentes, 36, stands for a portrait along the fence marking the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, Mexico, on June 23, 2012. Fuentes, who lived and worked in the United States for years, drove up to a roadblock in Escondido, California, in September, 2008, on her way to pick up kids from school. Since then she has been cut off from her children, and has been forced to create a new life in her old country. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) # 13 The US-Mexico border fence stretches into the countryside near Nogales, Arizona, on March 8, 2013. U.S. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 14 Google maps Street View, in Mexicali, Mexico looking north, toward a field in Calexico, California. (© Google, Inc.) # 15 In this image released by the Mexicali Public Safety Department, a man holds up an improvised cannon that was confiscated earlier in the day, February 26, 2013. Police in the border city say the cannon was used to hurl packets of marijuana across a border fence into California. (AP Photo/Mexicali Public Safety Department) # 16 Monument 245, viewed from the Mexico side of the border, in Tecate, by a Google Street View van. There are 276 such monuments lining the border, almost all built in the 1890s. (© Google, Inc.)# 17 U.S. Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US- Mexico border fence while on patrol on April 10, 2013 in La Joya, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 18 An undocumented immigrant is detained by the U.S. Border Patrol near the US-Mexico border on April 11, 2013 near Mission, Texas. A group of 16 immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador said they crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Texas during the morning hours before they were caught. The Rio Grande Valley sector of has seen more than a 50 percent increase in illegal immigrant crossings from last year, according to the Border Patrol. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 19 U.S. Border Patrol ranch liaison John "Cody" Jackson (right) rides with cattle rancher Dan Bell on Bell's ZZ Cattle Ranch at the US-Mexico border, on March 8, 2013 in Nogales, Arizona. Jackson meets regularly with local ranchers to coordinate the agency's efforts on border issues, including drug smuggling and illegal immigration from Mexico. Bell, a third generation rancher, grazes cattle on nearly ten miles of border property. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 20 In this photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a silver Jeep Cherokee that suspected smugglers were attempting to drive over the U.S.-Mexico border fence is stuck at the top of a makeshift ramp, on October 31, 2012 near Yuma, Arizona. U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Station seized both the ramps and the vehicle, which stalled at the top of the ramp after it became high centered. The fence is approximately 14 feet high where the would-be smugglers attempted to drive across the border. The two suspects fled into Mexico when the agents arrived at the scene. (AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection) # 21 Property owner Bill Odle carries a gun and pocket knife as he discusses his perspective on Border Patrol near his home adjacent to the Arizona-Mexico border near Naco, Arizona, on March 29, 2013. Despite additional fencing and agents, Odle says their Border Patrol's presence on the line is only intermittent. (Reuters/Samantha Sais) # 22 Google Street View of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Arizona, seen from just over the border, in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. (© Google, Inc.) # 23 Residents of Naco, Arizona join residents of Naco, Mexico for a volleyball match during the fourth "Fiesta Bi-Nacional" at the fence that separates the U.S. (left) and Mexico (right), on April 14, 2007. (Reuters/Jeff Topping) # 24 In numerous places, fences and roads marking the US-Mexico border simply end, only to start again miles away. This aerial view of such a road ends on a hillside on the border in southeast Arizona. (© Google, Inc.) # 25 Flor Gonzales, 19, from Chiapas, Mexico spends a night at the San Juan Bosco shelter for undocumented immigrants on March 9, 2013 in Nogales, Mexico. She said she was caught by the U.S. Border Patrol while trying for the first time to cross with a group into Arizona and was deported. The Juan Bosco shelter, located in Nogales, Mexico close to the U.S. border, allows immigrants to stay for up to three nights, either after they have been deported from the U.S. or before they attempt to cross the border into Arizona.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 26 The border wall, illuminated at night in Nogales, Arizona, on July 6, 2012. (Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images) # 27 U.S. border cops in western Arizona seized this off-road go-kart and trailer packed with marijuana, in an attempt by Mexican smugglers to beat beefed up border security. The Border Patrol's Yuma sector said agents and officers from the Cocopah Tribal Police Department spotted the single-seater go-kart hauling a trailer through the desert near Yuma, Arizona, and gave chase. The driver abandoned the homemade vehicle, which was spray painted a desert beige, fitted with knobbly off-road tires, and towing a trailer packed with 217 pounds of marijuana, about 100 yards from the border, and fled back to Mexico. (Reuters/U.S. Customs and Border Protection) # 28 Two men illegally cross the border fence separating Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, on July 28, 2010.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) # 29 David Walker, a Southern Arizona rancher, stands at the border wall with Mexico on August 15, 2010 in Hereford, Arizona, Walker was attending the United Border Coalition Tea Party Rally in support of Arizona's immigration law, SB1070 with conservative tea party activists along a remote stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border about 70 miles (113 km) west of Nogales. (AP Photo/Matt York) # 30 The United States/Mexico border fence, in Nogales, Arizona, on November 10, 2010. A town of about 20,000 people, it lies just north of the city of Nogales, Mexico, which has a population estimated at nearly ten times that number. (Reuters/Eric Thayer) # 31 Aerial view of a desert area south of Yuma, Arizona (left), and, across the border fence, the streets of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico. (© Google, Inc.) # 32 The zig-zag Amistad Reservoir, part of the Rio Grande, acts as the international border between Mexico (bottom), and The U.S. (top).(© Google, Inc.) # 33 In Union Hidalgo, southern Mexico, migrants ride on top of a northbound train, heading toward the US-Mexico border, on April 29, 2013. Migrants crossing Mexico to get to the U.S. have increasingly become targets of criminal gangs who kidnap them to obtain ransom money.(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo) # 34 Suspected drug smugglers flee across the Rio Grande River into Mexico on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. Their marijuana smuggling atttempt was broken up by U.S. Border Patrol agents with helicopter support from the Office of Air and Marine.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 35 An aerial view of the Santa Fe bridge that links the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, bottom, with the U.S. city of El Paso, Texas, on February 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini) # 36 A woman, who declined to give her name, is hugged by her husband as they chat between the border fence separating Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, on July 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) # 37 A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches in dense brush for undocumented immigrants who had crossed from Mexico into the United States on April 11, 2013 in Penitas, Texas. In the last month the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector has seen a spike in the number of immigrants crossing the river from Mexico into Texas. With more apprehensions, they have struggled to deal with overcrowding while undocumented immigrants are processed for deportation. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 38 A pickup load of marijuana sits after being seized near the US-Mexico Border on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. U.S. Border Patrol agents broke up a marijuana smuggling shipment from Mexico into Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 39 A suspected drug trafficker stands, caught in the weeds on the bank of the Rio Grande River at the US-Mexico Border, on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 40 A U.S. border patrol vehicle, seen from the Mexican side of the border in a long-exposure photograph, while driving near Otay Mountain on the outskirts of San Diego, California, on July 1, 2010. (Reuters/Jorge Duenes) Photographer Eric Thayer traveled to Brooks County, Texas and Reynosa, Mexico to investigate the rising rates of immigrant deaths along the border there, spending time at a migrant’s hostel in Mexico and with U.S. Border Patrol in Brooks County. In 2012, sheriff’s deputies in Brooks County found 129 bodies, around double the amount from the year before and six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants, after spending several weeks traveling through Mexico and past the Rio Grande, spend a few days in a “stash house”, such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. 1 People are taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012 sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 2 People are taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 3 The border fence is seen in Mission, Texas March 28, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 4 The border fence is seen in Hidalgo, Texas March 28, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 5 A sign is seen on the gate of a ranch in Falfurrias, Texas April 2, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 2, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 6 A group of illegal immigrants, who handed themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol, sit in a restaurant in Encino, Texas March 29, 2013. Members of the group said their guide left them in the desert and never returned. After being lost for days and running out of food and water they handed themselves in. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 7 U.S. Border Patrol agent Daniel Tirado from the Rio Grande Valley Sector looks out at the Rio Grande river in Hidalgo, Texas March 28, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 8 The unidentified grave of a person whose remains were found in the desert is seen in Falfurrias, Texas April 1, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 9 The unidentified graves of people whose remains were found in the desert are seen in Falfurrias, Texas April 1, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 10 The Los Ebanos Ferry Crossing checkpoint is seen along the Rio Grande river in Los Ebanos, Texas March 28, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 11 A U.S. Border Patrol agent from the Rio Grande Valley Sector searches for a group of illegal immigrants who crossed the Rio Grande River in Mission, Texas March 28, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 12 A boy runs on the shore at the boundary between the United States and Mexico, where the Rio Grande river meets the Gulf of Mexico in Brownsville, Texas March 31, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 31, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 13 A U.S. Border Patrol agent looks out at the desert near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 14 A sign is seen at the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 15 A U.S. Border Patrol agent walks past a rescue beacon near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 16 A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks cars at the Falfurrias checkpoint, near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Located about 70 miles (113 km) north of the border, 5,000-7,000 cars pass through the checkpoint on a normal day, and 12,000 on holidays. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 29, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 17 A car filled with bales of marijuana is seen at a police station in La Grulla, Texas March 28, 2013. When police tried to pull the car over, the driver led officers on a high speed pursuit, driving the car into the Rio Grande river. The driver abandoned the vehicle and fled back across the river and into Mexico. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Border Patrol agents and local and state law enforcement are inundated with not only an increase in the numbers of illegal immigrants, but drug smugglers as well. Picture taken March 28, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 18 Rancher Gabriel Cantu poses for a photograph on his property near Falfurrias, Texas April 2, 2013. Cantu said that he has noticed an increase in the number of people crossing his property recently. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 2, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 19 A street sign is seen in the Southmost neighborhood in Brownsville, Texas March 30, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken March 30, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 20 A man talks on a pay phone at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 21 People sit on a couch at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 22 Beds are seen in a sleeping area at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 23 A man washes his clothes at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 24 A man is reflected in a mirror at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa, Mexico April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 25 A man stands in a sleeping area at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 26 Shoes dry at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 27 A man receives a haircut at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 28 A man sews his jeans at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 29 A man sits on a couch at Casa del Migrante in Reynosa April 1, 2013. Casa del Migrante provides housing, food, clothing and medical care to people who are planning to cross the border, and to those who have been deported from the United States. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 1, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 30 A memorial is seen in the desert near Falfurrias, Texas April 2, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. Picture taken April 2, 2013. REUTERS/Eric Thayer # 31 U.S. Border Patrol agents search for a group of 50 illegal immigrants, following a report from a rancher, near Falfurrias, Texas March 29, 2013. Brooks County has become an epicentre for illegal immigrant deaths in Texas. In 2012, sheriff's deputies found 129 bodies there, six times the number recorded in 2010. Most of those who died succumbed to the punishing heat and rough terrain that comprise the ranch lands of south Texas. Many migrants spend a few days in a "stash house", such as the Casa del Migrante, in Reynosa, Mexico, and many are ignorant of the treacherous journey ahead. This is the moment a makeshift encampment, set up by immigrants desperate for a new life in the US, is dramatically raided by border police. Sleeping on pieces of cardboard, more than 80 immigrants were hiding in camouflaged tents and huts in a suburban part of Texas near its border with Mexico. Surviving on little food and water for at least a week, the men had found an undeveloped patch of scrub near an abandoned tennis club at McAllen. But their bid to enter the country came to an end when Border Patrol officers swooped. A short time later, Border Patrol arrested 132 immigrants found in two buildings on a property in Alton, about eight miles west of McAllen. Guides are believed to lead the immigrants across the Rio Grande in smaller groups and then mass them in so-called stash houses on the Texas side of the border until their transportation can be arranged for the next leg of their journey. One of those arrested, Alfredo Espinoza Rivera, said he had left El Salvador about six weeks earlier, paying $7,000 to a smuggler. The 37-year-old said he was trying to reach his father, a U.S. citizen, in Los Angeles. The Border Patrol made more than 154,000 arrests on the section of the US-Mexico border in southernTexas last year, more than anywhere else on the Southwest border. The majority of the immigrants come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. +14 Immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally sit in a group after US Border Patrol agents detained at least 80 people who had been living in a makeshift encampment in suburban McAllen, Texas. A patrol officer stands guard while those arrested are asked to sit on the ground +14 With their hands resting on the shoulders of the person in front, immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally are transported to a bus on Thursday. Moments earlier, their makeshift camp, hidden in a patch of suburban scrubland in McAllen, texas, had been raided by border patrol officers +14 An immigrant suspected of being in the country illegally emerges from the hidden encampment in Texas and is escorted away. Authorities said there had been a camp at the site in McAllen for at least a week with little food or water +14 With their hands clasped together behind their heads, a row of immigrants are marched out of their camp, watched by two Border Patrol officers. Some of the men said they survived on little food or water for a week, staying in huts and tents hidden by trees and cacti +14 With bags and clothes left abandoned on the ground, this is the site of the makeshift encampment set up by dozens of immigrants in McAllen, Texas. Cardboard was used to sleep on while in some cases, shelter came from the branches of trees +14 A young man, with a glum look on his face, is handcuffed by a Border Patrol officer as he is shown where to go next. He was arrested on suspected of entering the US illegally along with scores of others along the Texas border +14 Sitting on the ground after being arrested, some of the many immigrants found camping along the Texas border are guarded by green-uniformed Border Patrol officers. In total more than 200 immigrants were arrested on Thursday +14 Everado Sanchez from Honduras, pictured, an immigrant suspected of being in the US illegally, waits with others arrested on the Texas border. Agents spent about three hours rounding up the immigrants during the raid +14 Looking down towards the ground and clasping the shoulders of the person in front of them, lines of male and female immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally are led away from their makeshift camp +14 Most of the 200 immigrants arrested during the raids on Thursday are believed to be from Central America including Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. In this picture, men ranging in age group, sit together in the long grass near the camp they chad called home for a week. One man said he had been surviving on 'one burrito a day' +14 With a Cross around his neck, the young man pictured left in a dark hooded top, leads a line of fellow detainees. A Border Patrol agent stands guard while scores of people arrested during their raid are led away +14 Through the long grass growing at the scrub land they were using for accommodation, these men and women are are just some of the many people arrested each year trying to gain a new life in the US. Last year 154,000 arrests were made on the section of the US-Mexico border in southern Texas, more than anywhere else on the Southwest border +14 Guides typically lead the immigrants across the Rio Grande in smaller groups and then mass them in so-called stash houses on the Texas side of the border until their transportation can be arranged for the next leg of their journey +14 A young man is led away by border patrol following the raid. Another man, Alfredo Espinoza Rivera, who was arrested at the camp, said he had left El Salvador about six weeks earlier, paying $7,000 to a smuggler. The 37-year-old said he was trying to reach his father, a US citizen, in Los Angeles. 'I'm scared to go back to my country,' he said. "There's a lot of crime and it's hard to live there." An Immigrant's Journey Getty Images photographer John Moore has spent years covering stories about immigration between Mexico and the United States -- border enforcement, drug smuggling, undocumented workers, and more. Earlier this year, he traveled south to the Mexico-Guatemala border, where Central American immigrants cross the Suchiate River, beginning their long and perilous journey north through Mexico. He traveled with some of the thousands of immigrants who ride atop freight trains, known as "la bestia," or the Beast, toward the U.S. border. Riders on the Beast risk a great deal -- robbery and assault by gangs who control the train tops, or the loss of life or limb in a fall. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey in Central America will traverse Mexico completely unscathed -- and all this before illegally entering the United States and facing the considerable U.S. border security apparatus designed to track, detain, and deport them. Moore has captured images not only of their difficult journey, but of the faces of these travelers, telling their stories through compelling portraits taken in shelters and jails along the way. People cross into Mexico, rafting across the Suchiate River from Guatemala, on August 2, 2013 in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas, Mexico. Thousands of undocumented Central Americans pass illegally through Mexico, many of them immigrants on the first leg of their long and perilous journey north to the United States. (John Moore/Getty Images) 2 The mountains of Guatemala, viewed from the Mexican side of the border on August 1, 2013 in Talisman, Mexico.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 3 A group of undocumented Guatemalans is ferried across the Suchiate River into Mexico on August 1, 2013 in Talisman, Mexico. They pass directly under a bridge with a Mexican immigration checkpoint. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 4 Undocumented people disembark after crossing into Mexico from Guatemala at the Suchiate River on August 1, 2013 in Talisman, Mexico.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 5 An indigenous family walks from Guatemala into Talisman, Mexico, after illegally crossing the border at the Suchiate River, on August 1, 2013.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 6 Lightning flashes across the sky as a freight train known as "la bestia," or the beast, prepares to depart Arriaga, Mexico, on August 3, 2013. Thousands of migrants ride atop the trains during their journey through Mexico to the U.S. border. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 7 A Nicaraguan immigrant wears a plastic bag during a thunderstorm before climbing atop a freight train headed north in Arriaga, early on August 4, 2013. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 8 Central American migrants climb atop a freight train headed north early on August 4, 2013 in Arriaga. Many of the immigrants making this journey are robbed or assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 9 A train crew loads sand into an engine to sprinkle on rain-slick tracks while headed north from Arriaga, on August 4, 2013.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 10 Lightning flashes as Central American migrants stand atop a freight train headed north from in Arriaga, on August 4, 2013.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 11 Undocumented Guatemalan immigrant Elvira Lopez, 22, stands on crutches at the Jesus el Buen Pastor shelter in Tapachula, Mexico, on July 31, 2013. She has been convalescing at the shelter for six months after falling under the wheels of a freight train and losing her right leg while en route to the United States. The shelter, which relies entirely on private donations, has helped countless immigrants recover from their wounds while helping arrange for prosthetics. Lopez said she fell asleep 5 days into her journey from Guatemala and was knocked off the train by a tree branch. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 12 Guatemalan immigrant Jorge Enrique, 33, spends an evening at the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter on August 5, 2013 in Ixtepec, Mexico. He said he planned to ride a freight train later that night to continue his journey north to eventually cross into the United States on his way to Tampa, where he had previously worked as a house painter. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 13 Salvadorian immigrant Consuelo Miscuita, 42, and her daughter Wendy, 15, spend another night at the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter on August 5, 2013 in Ixtepec, Mexico. Consuelo said before arriving to the shelter they were robbed of all their money by Mexican federal police. They have been staying at the Hermanos shelter for four months while awaiting Mexican immigration documents to allow them to safely travel to the U.S. border by bus. Once there, they plan to meet up with Wendy's father, who is currently working in the northern state of Sonora, and then try to illegally cross together into the United States. The women are trying to avoid riding the freight trains, known as "la bestia," or the beast, as thousands of other Central Americans do on their perilous journey north through Mexico. Some of the immigrants are robbed, assaulted or, especially in the case of women, raped by gangs who control the train tops. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 14 Honduran immigrant Jorge Vargas Aguilar, 18, spends a day at the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter in Ixtepec, on August 5, 2013. He said he planned to ride a freight train north later that night to continue his journey to the U.S. border and eventually to San Francisco to find whatever work he can. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 15 Honduran transgender immigrant Daniela, 20, at the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter in Ixtepec, on August 5, 2013. She has been staying at the shelter for more than a month while Mexican immigration authorities process documents to allow her to travel to the U.S. border via bus, a much safer alternative than riding the freight trains north. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 16 Honduran immigrant Melvin, 16, in the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter in Ixtepec, on August 5, 2013. He said he planned to ride a freight train north later that night to continue his journey to the U.S. border and eventually to San Francisco to find whatever work he can.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 17 Honduran immigrant Ruben, 43, spends a day at the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter on August 5, 2013 in Ixtepec, Mexico. He had previously worked in Orlando, Florida as a construction worker. He said that when he had saved enough money five years ago, he returned voluntarily to Honduras and was assaulted and robbed of all his savings, also suffering a serious injury to his right eye. Now, again journeying to the U.S, he said he planned to ride a freight train north to the border and eventually return to Orlando. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 18 Immigrants listen as Catholic Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra warns them of the dangers in their journey to the United States, while at the Hermanos en el Camino (Brothers on the Road) shelter on August 4, 2013 in Ixtepec, Mexico. The shelter, founded by Solalinde in 2007, houses and feeds immigrants, mostly from Central America, during a stop on their train route through Mexico towards the U.S. border.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 19 Central American immigrants check a map of Mexico before boarding a freight train headed north on August 3, 2013 from Arriaga, Mexico.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 20 Immigrants arrive for a rest stop after a 15 hour ride atop a freight train headed north in Ixtepec, Mexico, on August 4, 2013.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 21 Central American immigrants atop a freight train stop briefly in Ixtepec, on August 6, 2013. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 22 Central American immigrants arrive on top of a freight train to the Hermanos en el Camino immigrant shelter in Ixtepec, on August 6, 2013. The sign outside reads "Welcome Migrants." (John Moore/Getty Images) # 23 Central American immigrants ride north on top of a freight train near Juchitlan, Mexico, on August 6, 2013. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 24 A Central American immigrant rides atop a freight train on August 6, 2013 through Juchitlan, Mexico. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 25 Immigrants duck beneath tree branches while riding on top of a freight train near Juchitlan, on August 6, 2013.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 26 Immigrants fall asleep atop a freight train near Juchitlan, on August 6, 2013. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 27 The international port of entry stretches from the U.S. (right), into Mexico on May 21, 2013 in Hidalgo, Texas. The Rio Grande Valley area is an important international commercial zone but has also become the busiest sector for illegal immigration and a key drug smuggling route on the entire U.S.-Mexico border. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 28 A suspected drug smuggling scout paddles his raft back across the Rio Grande into Mexico from the U.S. side of the border on May 21, 2013 near Hidalgo, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 29 An anthropology student marks the spot where human bones of a suspected undocumented immigrant were found by the U.S. Border Patrol on a ranch on May 22, 2013 in Falfurrias, Brooks County, Texas. In Brooks County alone, at least 129 immigrants perished in 2012, most of dehydration while making the long crossing from Mexico. Teams from Baylor University and the University of Indianapolis are exhuming the bodies of more than 50 immigrants who died, mostly from heat exhaustion, while crossing illegally from Mexico into the United States. The bodies will be examined and cross checked with DNA sent from Mexico and Central American countries, with the goal of reuniting the remains with families. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 30 A U.S. Border Patrol agent detains undocumented immigrants who had crossed from Mexico into the United States on April 11, 2013 in Mission, Texas. In the last month the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector has seen a spike in the number of immigrants crossing the river from Mexico into Texas. With more apprehensions, they have struggled to deal with overcrowding while undocumented immigrants are processed for deportation. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 31 A U.S. Border Patrol agent handcuffs an undocumented immigrant near the U.S.-Mexico border near Mission, Texas, on April 11, 2013. A group of 16 immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador said they crossed the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Texas during the morning hours before they were caught. (John Moore/Getty Images) # 32 Glegario Ramiriz, 44, poses for a portrait as he serves time in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tent jail in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 11, 2013. Ramirez was arrested in Phoenix in November for drug possession. He said he had been living with his family in Phoenix and previously Los Angeles for a total of 34 years. As an undocumented immigrant with a criminal record, he may likely be deported to Mexico after his serving his sentence. President Obama's administration deported a record 1.5 million people during his first term of office. In 2012, 55 percent of deportees had criminal convictions for drug offenses or driving under the influence, according to U.S. immigration officials.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 33 An immigrant inmate exercises while another sits on his bunk at the Maricopa County Tent City jail on March 11, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona. The striped uniforms and pink undergarments are standard issue at the facility, despite an ongoing court challenge. The tent jail, run by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, houses undocumented immigrants who are serving up to one year after being convicted of crime in the county. Although many of immigrants have lived in the U.S for years, often with families, most will be deported to Mexico after serving their sentences.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 34 Jose Rosales, 17, from Guatemala spends a night at the San Juan Bosco shelter for immigrants in Nogales, Mexico, on March 9, 2013. Rosales said that he had lived as an undocumented immigrant in Los Angeles for two years before he was deported. He planned to try and cross into Arizona with a "coyote" or human smuggler in the upcoming days. The Juan Bosco shelter, located in Nogales, Mexico close to the U.S. border, allows immigrants to stay for up to three nights, either after they have been deported from the U.S. or before they try to cross into Arizona.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 35 An immigrant from Guanajuato, Mexico spends a night at the San Juan Bosco shelter in Nogales, Mexico, on March 9, 2013. The man, 40, who preferred to not give his name, said he had been living in California for 14 years, working as a farm laborer. He said he was arrested by police after an argument with his spouse and then turned over to immigration authorities, who deported him a month later.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 36 Jorge Rodriguez, 62, from Guatemala, spends a night at the San Juan Bosco shelter for undocumented immigrants in Nogales, Mexico, on March 9, 2013. Rodriguez said he worked in the United States for 8 months before he was detained by immigration authorities and deported.(John Moore/Getty Images) # 37 American citizen Lace Rodriguez and her husband Javier Guerrero from Mexico, embrace with their son Javier Jr., in Nogales, Mexico, on March 10, 2013. The family lived together in Phoenix, Arizona before Guerrero, an undocumented worker from Mexico, was detained by the Border Patrol after being stopped for speeding and drug possession, held for three months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and then deported March 4 to Nogales, Mexico. Guerrero had lived in the United States for 17 years. He and Rodriguez, a medical student, have two children, and she is nine months pregnant with a third. The splitting up of families has become a major issue as the U.S. works towards immigration reform. (John Moore/Getty Images) http:// http://

A flight carrying 59 women and children arrived Friday in Honduras from New Mexico, the second group of migrants from the Central American country to be deported from the United States this week.   Nun Valdette Willeman welcomed the 33 children and 26 women at San Pedro Sula airport's Center for Returned Migrants. 'All the children came accompanied by their mother, none of them traveled alone,' Willeman said. She said there is a playground for the children and a place for their parents to clean up and get ready before continuing to their hometowns by bus. Each child received a small backpack with crayons, and their mothers about $24 for travel expenses. +5 Return: Immigration and Custom officials standby as a woman and child, who were deported from the United States, deplane at the San Pedro Sula airport in Honduras +5 A girl, deported from the United States, walks to board a bus that will take her to the Center for Migrants Returned, upon her arrival at the airport in San Pedro Sula on Friday Several of the women said they had mixed emotions about failing to stay in the United States and that they now worry about paying back the thousands of dollars they borrowed to travel north. 'Part of my heart stayed in the U.S. because I missed a chance to get ahead in life,' said Isabel Rodriguez, who was deported along with her 2-year-old boy and 8-year-old daughter. 'The most important thing is that I'm with my children,' she added. Another woman who wouldn't give her name said she still owes about $7,200 she borrowed to pay the smuggler. On Monday, about 40 Honduran migrants detained in New Mexico were deported to their home country. The U.S. Border Patrol has detained fewer unaccompanied children entering South Texas illegally in the past 10 days, agency officials said Thursday. In recent months, the Border Patrol's facilities in South Texas have been overwhelmed by a surge in the number of children entering the country without their parents. More than 57,000 children have been arrested since October, more than double the number compared to a year earlier. The Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector Chief Kevin Oaks made the comment about declining child arrests following a media tour of a new processing facility for them in McAllen. The 55,000-square-foot converted warehouse is scheduled to open Friday and temporarily house as many as 1,000 children until they can be turned over to the Health and Human Services Department and sent to shelters. 'We arrested 80 juveniles yesterday, so within the last 10 days we've seen a decrease in the number of juveniles arrested,' Oaks said. Later, Roel Rodriguez, the agent who will head the new processing facility, said that daily arrest tally was down from 200 to 300 unaccompanied children at the surge's height. Children arrested after entering the U.S. without their parents posed a challenge for the Border Patrol. Its stations are equipped only with simple holding cells and not intended for extended stays. When agents began arresting more children than could be quickly processed they backed up stations in the Rio Grande Valley, forcing the agency to bus and fly detainees to other parts of Texas and out of state. +5 Protection: A woman, holding her daughter, wears a cloth over her head to protect her identity from waiting news media, as she deplanes Oaks' comments jibe with a general drop in total immigrant arrests in South Texas in the final week of June. The Border Patrol has not released such data for July, but weekly arrest totals included in law enforcement intelligence reports obtained by The Associated Press in May and June show that arrests dropped in the final week of June to a level not seen since mid-May. Weekly arrest totals in the Rio Grande Valley during those months peaked in mid-June at more than 9,000. The factors contributing to the drop are unclear and it is unknown if it will continue. Oaks said that with the opening of the McAllen facility, the Border Patrol was winding down a similar processing center in Nogales, Arizona, and he expected it to close within a week. The vast majority of the children enter the U.S. in South Texas and the new processing facility is just around the corner from the region's busiest Border Patrol station. Law requires the Border Patrol to turn the children over to HHS within 72 hours of their arrest. He said his sector now had fewer than 200 unaccompanied children in custody, compared to as many as 1,200 on any given day during the peak. +5 Deported: A woman and her son walk on the tarmac after disembarking from a plane with deportees from the U.S., at the Ramon Villeda international airport in San Pedro Sula +5 Families: Two women and their children, who were deported from the United States, walk on the tarmac after deplaning The children, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, are fleeing widespread gang violence and poverty in their home countries. Some come to reunite with parents already in the U.S., while others flee for their lives. Some parents have said they've heard rumors that the children will be allowed to remain in the U.S. and the government tries to reunite children with relatives in the U.S. while they wait for their cases to be heard. Generally, the children have been turning themselves in to the first official in a uniform they see after crossing the Rio Grande. President Barack Obama has requested $3.7 billion in emergency spending to deal with what he termed 'an urgent humanitarian situation.' That request increasingly appears in jeopardy as Democrats and Republicans clash over how to remedy the situation. The new McAllen facility was set up inside a leased warehouse. Tall chain-link fences divide it into four 'pods,' each capable of holding up to 250 children. Children will sleep on small green mattresses, receive medical screenings and have common areas to watch television. 'The issue is very complex. We're not talking about criminals or anything,' Oaks said. 'These are innocent children fleeing desperate times whether it's poverty, whether it's violence, whether it's the draw of a better life the United States, whether it's family reunification.' Mexican crackdown has significantly cut numbers of child migrants on notoriously dangerous train to the US Mexican federal police are scouring the tracks of the infamous freight train known as 'The Beast' Authorities are hauling migrants from the rail cars and sending them to deportation centers The operation has greatly decreased the flow of Central Americans trying to reach the US The number of children and families has been greatly reduced Mexico's largest crackdown in decades on illegal migration has decreased the flow of Central Americans trying to reach the United States — and has dramatically cut the number of child migrants and families. Convoys of Mexican federal police and immigration service employees in southern Mexico have begun scouring the tracks of the infamous freight train known as 'La Bestia,' or The Beast, hauling migrants from the rail cars and sending them to deportation centers. They have also set up moving roadblocks, checking the documents of passengers on interstate buses. Associated Press journalists who followed the train one night this week as it left the southern state of Chiapas and entered neighboring Oaxaca noticed the drop-off, with just a few dozen mostly adult males perched atop the rumbling cars instead of the hundreds of men, women and children who were there not long ago. The men said they were the only ones able to evade capture. There were only two women and no children on the train. +22 +22 Immigration officials detain a Central American migrants during a raid by federal police on a northbound freight train, in San Ramon, Mexico +22 A Mexican crackdown seems to be keeping women and children off the deadly train, known as 'The Beast,' that has traditionally helped thousands of migrants head north +22 +22 A Central American migrant is led off a northbound train during a raid by federal Mexican authorities (left) while another one hops on (right) +22 The once-open route to the United States has become so difficult that trains now carry a small fraction of the migrants they used to, and almost exclusively adult men 'They took almost everyone,' said Jorge Ruiz Williams, a 20-year-old Honduran migrant who avoided detention and was seated atop La Bestia on Tuesday night. 'We escaped because we're young and agile.' When the authorities come, the migrants who once circulated openly in shelters and boarded the cars as they were being attached to the locomotive are forced to hide in the woods, where criminals lurk. Some of the Central American men say that instead of trying to cross into the United States they'll now stay and look for work in Mexico. Many families have apparently decided not to attempt the journey through Mexico at all since news of the raids and checkpoints — combined with stepped up efforts in the U.S. and among Central American governments — reached their communities, said Carlos Solis, the manager of a shelter in Arriaga. He said the city, once bustling with migrants waiting to board the train, emptied out almost overnight. +22 Central American migrants rest atop the last boxcar of a moving freight train as it heads north from Arriaga toward Chahuites, Mexico +22 Migrants jump onto a moving freight train as it departs from Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. In contrast to the many hundreds of migrants who used to board the train in Arriaga, only three could be seen jumping on on this day. Several dozen others emerged from wooded areas to hop aboard in the several kilometers outside Arriaga +22 Convoys of Mexican federal police and immigration service employees in southern Mexico have begun scouring the tracks of the infamous freight train known as 'La Bestia,' or The Beast, hauling migrants from the rail cars and sending them to deportation centers 'The word spreads, one person tells another, and it goes down the line,' Solis said. 'They're also going after the coyotes, so it is increasing the cost of the trip and making them move through less visible areas,' he said, referring to the smugglers paid to get migrants through to the U.S. border. American and Mexican officials say they are noticing the same drop-off all along the route. The roundups follow U.S. requests for help from Mexico, as well as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. On Aug. 7, the Department of Homeland Security released data showing the number of unaccompanied children and children traveling with a parent arrested along the Southwest border of the United States in July was roughly 13,000, half what it had been in June. +22 A sole clown shoe belonging to Honduran migrant Jorge Ruiz Williams, 20, lies atop a freight train after it arrived at the station in Ixtepec, Mexico. Williams escape s a police raid and later he had lost both shoes, but the rest of his professional clown costume was intact +22 When the authorities come, the migrants who once circulated openly in shelters and boarded the cars as they were being attached to the locomotive, are forced to hide in the woods, where criminals lurk +22 Officials in Chahuites say they do not allow federal police raids on migrants to happen in their small municipality. Strict enforcement is already drawing criticism, because it so closely mirrors the deadly cat-and-mouse game that U.S. border patrol agents have long played with Mexican migrants farther north DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said the trend appeared to be continuing during the first week of August, and President Barack Obama said Thursday that numbers for the whole month will show a further decline. 'We're seeing a significant downward trend in terms of these unaccompanied children,' Obama said. It is a far cry from the wave of migration that pressed toward the U.S. earlier this year, spurred on by a surge in violence in several Central American countries and news that women and children who reached the United States were being let go inside the country with orders to return for immigration hearings because family shelter space had filled up. From October to July, about 63,000 unaccompanied children were detained after entering the U.S. illegally, double the number from the same period a year earlier. Another 63,000 families — mothers or fathers with young children — were picked up during that period. +22 An immigration official checks a bus for Central American migrants, at a roadblock north of Arriaga +22 A northbound freight train, virtually empty of migrants, departs from Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico. In contrast to the many hundreds of migrants who used to board the train in Arriaga, only three could be seen jumping on on this day +22 A freight train heads north between Arriaga and Chahuites, Mexico There were no Central American children in the government shelter in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, coordinator Jose Guadalupe Villegas Garcia said Thursday. During the surge, at any one time the shelter housed about 15 Central American kids who had been apprehended or rescued by Mexican authorities before crossing the Rio Grande. Officials say the children are being caught long before they get to the border. 'There are very few foreigners,' said Carlos Jimenez, a spokesman with the Mexican family services agency in Reynosa. 'We received three or four children' in August. Omar Zamora, a Border Patrol spokesman in the Rio Grande Valley, where most of the unaccompanied children have entered the U.S., said Thursday that the agency was seeing about 30 to 40 of the children in custody each day in recent weeks. That is down from a peak when 300 or more were arrested in a day earlier this summer. How long Mexico can or will sustain such a massive operation is unclear. Sealing off the notoriously porous border with Guatemala is neither physically possible nor politically popular, and strict enforcement further inland is already drawing criticism, because it so closely mirrors the deadly cat-and-mouse game that U.S. border patrol agents have long played with Mexican migrants farther north. +22 A Central American migrant sits alone atop a freight train as it heads north from Arriaga to Ixtepec, Mexico +22 A pair of Central American migrants studies a map of Mexico as they arrive at a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, after riding atop a freight train from Arriaga, Mexico But for now, the effort shows no sign of abating. Williams, the Honduran migrant, said dozens of Mexican federal police and immigration agents boarded La Bestia this week at a remote, unscheduled stop and hauled off all but a handful of the most fleet-footed migrants. To escape capture, Williams had to speed across cars and swing down on a steel ladder, injuring his hand in the process, before climbing back aboard when the danger had passed. Criminal gangs who used to prey on migrants on the train, threatening to throw them off unless they cooperated, are hiding in the woods near the highway checkpoints where immigration officials search passing buses, said Aliver Leon Lopez, 29, of Ahuachapan, El Salvador. He was shot in the neck by a band of thieves because he tried to hide his money from them. 'Before each checkpoint you have to get off and walk through the woods,' said Leon Lopez, who still wears a bloody bandage on his neck. 'They (criminals) have located the points where migrants get off to walk.' +22 A migrant rests in a near-empty migrant shelter in Ixtepec, Mexico +22 Migrants said the train they rode on from Arriaga was raided by authorities during the night, and most of the migrants aboard either fled or were captured +22 A pair of Central American migrants has lunch under a train as they wait for it to depart from Arriaga, Mexico. The city, once bustling with migrants waiting to board the train, emptied out almost overnight Faced with the nearly overwhelming obstacles in reaching the United States, Leon Lopez and others say they are giving up, at least for now. He plans to apply for a humanitarian visa available in Mexico to those who have been crime victims. Other migrants talked about finding work in Mexico, rather than the United States. 'Before you could get through more easily,' said Abner Ramirez, 30, a coffee picker from Coatepeque, Guatemala, who was sleeping on the side of the railway tracks in Chahuites after fleeing another raid on the train over the weekend. 'If I can get a steady job, a steady paycheck, I'd stay ... to send money back home,' he said. Juan Antonio Salmeron, a 48-year old construction worker from La Union, El Salvador, said he wants to work in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa, picking fruit or vegetables. 'You can earn good money there,' Salmeron said. +22 Migrants wait beside a train depot in the town of Chahuites, Mexico, which has decided to protect and aid migrants passing through +22 A Central American migrant rides aboard a moving freight train as it departs from Arriaga, Chiapas state, Mexico