Catracho: Border Patrol vs. Mafia
So you have to deal with the border patrol and with the mafia, which one is worse?
[Everybody in unison] Oh, the mafia! The mafia is way worse, because the mafia will kill you. The other day they caught us and I thought that it would be the last day of my life. They have these big guns and they were pointing them at us and I was thinking they were going to kill us. It is a big weapon like an R-15. They took us, they took our shoes off, they took all our papers, they asked if we had any phone numbers of our friends, that if we have any to give it to them. What I did was I took my wallet very carefully and took out the phone numbers and threw them out and that is a problem now, that I cannot communicate with any of my family anymore. I only know my cousin’s phone number but all the rest I lost, don’t have them anymore, so I don’t have any more communication.
And why did they want the phone numbers?
I don’t know. And then they asked us where we were going and one said they were going to Mexicali, and they had us for another while and it was very cold. They made us stay there til after dawn and then they let us go. So here we are. Fortunately they didn’t kill us.
So it is worse to find the mafia than to meet the migra?
Yes, because it is worse with the mafia. As soon as you cross into the U.S. then you don’t worry so much about the mafia and you feel more secure, because then you are trying to hide from the border patrol. Because, yeah, the mafia will kill you but the border patrol will stop you and if you don’t fight back they’ll just stop you and arrest you and sometimes they can beat you or something, but they won’t kill you. They will arrest you and they will deport you, but they won’t kill you. Sometimes even they’re waiting and waiting to see when you will jump and you’re there fearing how it’s going to happen, they’re watching you with binoculars.