"The ground of anybody" or "la tierra de nadie"

Résumé du document

If we often hear about migration problems between Mexico and the United States, we don't really know what happens to migrants expelled from the USA, who have to come back to Tijuana, a basic Californian border city. That's why it seems interesting to enlighten the destiny of those who are called “the deportees” (los deportados in Spanish). With one million clandestine people a year, there are more than 500 expulsions a day from the USA to Tijuana. The frontier post in Tijuana is the bus terminus boarded by clandestine migrants repressed every day by the north American government. Many deportees have spent all their life in the United States.

Actually, clandestine Mexican migrants are spurned to Tijuana, and most of the time, become totally marginalized. The sewers of Tijuana seem empty of people but…there are a hundred people banned from the USA living here: “back to square one”, the American dream ends here. They keep on living in this city, near to the border, hidden underground in the tunnels or in the sewers because tracked by the Police. Many of them stay there without papers and in consequence without any right. They do not have anywhere to go, no family, so they live in Tijuana's duct, “the ground of nobody”, originally named “la tierra de nadie”.

Extraits

[...] With one million clandestine people a year, there are more than 500 expulsions a day from the USA to Tijuana. The frontier post in Tijuana is the bus terminus boarded by clandestine migrants repressed every day by the north American government. Many deportees have spent all their life in the United States. Actually, clandestine Mexican migrants are spurned to Tijuana, and most of the time, become totally marginalized. The sewers of Tijuana seem empty of people but there are a hundred people banned from the USA living here: “back to square the American dream ends here. [...]

[...] This is the only link which seems to link them to life in society and its values. The future of the “deportees” politically divides the United States and has agitated the presidential campaign. In this day and age, we hope that the president elect of the United States, Barack Obama, will respect what he said, that is to say grant visas to irregular migrants if they keep up with the English language and have not committed any offence. As Obama says, it would be to take out of the water” these people whose whole life is in North America, but have no chance to live legally in what they consider their home”. [...]

[...] Not any information goes around in the jail and the director speech is well oiled. So irregular Mexican migrants are marginalized, they don't have any choice but to live in jail or in the “ground of nobody”. They are totally excluded from society and have recreated a sort of community, in the tunnels, in the hope to cross again the border, meet up with their families and find jobs again. Their only aim is to go back to the United States. [...]

[...] They do not have anywhere to go, no family, so they live in Tijuana's duct, ground of nobody”, originally named tierra de nadie”. Many testimonies were made by these people, and journalists could have them thanks to Girardo, a volunteer, who gives syringes, compress and disinfectant to these illegal inhabitants who turned to drugs. The volunteer says that is the American tragedy”. But in spite of everything, these people try to survive, fitting out the tunnels and working. San Diego is the main working place for the deportee people: they wash cars stopping at the lights to buy their heroin dose. [...]

[...] The Police do not really seem worried about the “deportees'” life, they seem more concerned by their future salary. Their action seems to be voyeurism: they search the places where migrants live and take the little things migrants own. Every migrant living in the ground of nobody knows that they can be put in jail overnight. Many people who just went out of jail are incarcerated again for no reason; they do not even have the time to think about how they could do to live anew. [...]