Letter from my wife Alison 7/15/10:
I’m in Mexico right now, Cozumel, and have been asking locals .. waiters, clerks, etc.. what they think of the new Arizona immigration law. They all know about it, and think it’s terrible — mean to poor people just trying to make a living. When I point out to them if I were in Mexico illegally I would be deported, thrown in jail or forced to pay $$$ … they either didn’t know that and/or don’t care. A disconnect for them between their own country’s laws and U.S./Arizona’s “mean” law.
Most extraordinary, I learned today from a Mexican friend in Cozumel about his experience of driving to Merida, capital city of Yucatan, the next state over from Cozumel (which is in the state of Quintana Roo). In the U.S. it would be like driving into a big city in the next state over from where you live. (from Texas into OK City, Florida into Atlanta, … etc) Except for a few things: There is only one entrance to Merida (a city of 1.5 million). There is a police checkpoint (they have guns AND bullets), everyone MUST stop before entering. My friend Ramon was driving a rental car from Cozumel. The police took his driver’s license and car papers. They searched the car and his luggage. He had 2 packages of toilet paper … they asked “why? what is this for? why not buy it here?” He told them it was for his personal use. (he’d just been to the store and it was on sale, 2 for 1) They asked him: “why are you coming here ? how long will you be here? what will you do while you’re here? where will you stay while you’re here ? where are you from? where do you live now? why do you have a rental car?” This stop took 30 minutes … at 3:00 in the morning with no one else in line. The police wanted Ramon to prove why he was there at that hour … he had to explain: I got off work at 6pm, went home, picked up the rental car, took the ferry to the mainland, trip was slow due to road construction. And they do this to every car going into Merida ! ! (excuse is they’re looking for drugs and guns) And they think Arizona is being mean ?!
And racial profiling ? I asked Ramon if I would be questioned the way he was …. he said probably not, as the police think it’s Mexicans with drugs and guns…. Bill and I have passed by police checkpoints on the highway to and from Cancun and weren’t stopped … they only seemed to be stopping Mexicans. And the Arizona law is mean and racist ….. ?
Your reporter from south of the border,
Alison
