Planes, buses, vans carrying thousands north
By Michael Marizco
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
HERMOSILLO, Sonora - The shrill whine of the jet engines slowed, and amid businessmen in suits, families and tourists, Pablo Silva emerged in a faded, dirty shirt and a baseball cap.
His first time on a plane, he was heading for the border where he would meet a smuggler to take him across.
Tuesday, he joined the first crush of illegal entrants who will be smuggled into the United States this year, a wave border agents gear up for each January.
Before he leaves Mexico, Silva will leave a trail of money from the airport to the shuttle that will take him to the migrant hotel at the border. He will buy warm clothes, food and water, boosting a support industry that caters to the crossers as he makes his way to a manual labor job building American homes.
The U.S. Border Patrol marks Jan. 7 as the day illegal crossing numbers surge, a diaspora of people being smuggled at more than 1,000 a day in the Tucson Sector alone.