Hope springs eternal as aliens return home
Juan Marcos Rodriguez, of Aurora, waited for the next bus to the border in an otherwise empty lobby of Autobuses Americanos in downtown Denver. The 46-year-old native of Chihuahua, Mexico, was on his way home – for good.
“It’s getting too difficult to stay,” said Rodriguez, a construction worker who came to the United States illegally in 2003. “It was fine when I got here. It was easy to get work. Nobody bothered you. Now, everyone is asking for documentation. I want to live a more tranquil life.”
Rodriguez is hardly alone, say local business owners who cater to Hispanic immigrants. They say state laws aimed at curbing illegal immigration, along with several high-profile raids in Colorado by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over the past year, have scared away their immigrant clientele.
How many immigrants may be leaving Colorado or passing through the state when they cross the border is unknown. But a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center found that since mid-2006 the number of immigrants either returning from Mexico or arriving in the United States for the first time has apparently tapered off.