Cribsheet

LEAVE THE DRIVING TO US

Illegal immigrants cluster at downtown bus stations

Complete article at:
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProces...Templates/Deta
ils.cfm&StoryID=63&Section=Valley

BROWNSVILLE - A heavyset man peers out the window of Brownsville’s Greyhound
bus station - sitting still while keeping a lazy eye on a Border Patrol agent
parked in an empty lot across the street. After the agent pulls away, the man
yells loudly that la migra - the Border Patrol - has left. Another man then
rushes in from the station’s storage area, throws open the front door and
slips quickly into a dark alley. He returns seconds later, trailed by seven
young men and a young woman - each clutching a Ziplock bag filled with
identification documents.

Edwin Edgardo, 25, is one of the men who whisked into the bus station Tuesday
night soon after the Border Patrol agent left his post. Wearing worn sneakers,
baggy blue jeans and a shortsleeve shirt, Edgardo’s outfit could be pulled
from just about any American closet. But he didn’t hide the fact that he was
undocumented - or at least that he was undocumented minutes before he entered
the bus station. He said he was on his way to New York to work a $16-an-hour
roofing job set up by his cousin.

"I am not afraid of getting caught," Edgardo said in Spanish, his dark brown
eyes framed by thick eyebrows and flat cheekbones. "I have done this before,
and have been caught once before. Now I am back." Others in his group were
also headed to the Big Apple. Two were on the way to Atlanta, one to
Tallahassee.