Divided Families

Divided Families: Advisory

DIVIDED FAMILIES: AN IN-DEPTH REPORTING PROJECT 

NOTE: There are more photos and also video available. We can mail a disc.

A young mother whose son is already beginning to forget his father. Two men who have searched for their missing brother for years. Border Patrol agents who toil miles from their families. These are the some of the people whose lives and whose families are divided by the U.S.-Mexico border. Supported by a grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, a group of advanced students in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University set out in fall 2007 to do a semester-long reporting project on divided families. The result, based on more than 30 trips to the border, deep into Mexico and to various parts of Arizona, is being made available to Arizona newspapers via Cronkite News Service. We commend this package to your attention and recommend it for use in your print and online editions.

This advisory begins with a publishable intro about the overall project and an editor’s note that can be included with individual stories. Below that are abstracts and links to each story. Links to photos are at the bottom of each story. This package, which is posted in its entirety at http://cronkitenews.asu.edu/dividedfamilies, is designed so newspapers can run individual stories in print, but we encourage Cronkite News Service clients to carry the entire package in their online editions. Please note there are more photos and also video available. We can mail a disc.

If you have questions about this package, please contact Steve Elliott at steve.elliott@asu.edu. Upon request, we can transmit all of the stories to AP Datafeature points.

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PUBLISHABLE INTRO

A young mother whose son is already beginning to forget his father. Two men who have searched for their missing brother for years. Border Patrol agents who toil miles from their families.

These are the some of the people whose lives and whose families are divided by the U.S.-Mexico border.

The line drawn between Mexico and the United States has always meant divisions that go far beyond geography or nationality. For many years, families have lost loved ones to distance and the desert, to the pull of new lives and the rejection of old ones.

This is more true now than ever. As it has become more difficult to cross the border _ legally or illegally _ it has become increasingly difficult for families to stay together.

It was with this in mind that that a group of advanced students in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University set out to do a semester-long reporting project in fall 2007. Seventeen students _ reporters, videographers and photographers _ made more than 30 trips to the border, deep into Mexico and to various parts of Arizona to find and tell the stories of divided families.

The students’ work was supported by a grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Illinois-based nonprofit organization founded by the international photojournalist, author, environmentalist and philanthropist. It is the second time that Buffett, who has said it’s important for journalism students to explore countries beyond their own borders, has supported a Cronkite School student journalism project. In 2006 his foundation underwrote the “Children of the Borderlands” project in which students produced photo documentaries depicting the lives of children along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Participating in the “Divided Families” project gave students “the opportunity to see border issues first hand and share stories about the lives of people directly affected by immigration policies,” said one of the photojournalism students in the project, Courtney Sargent. “The importance of covering immigration issues became clearly evident after seeing the dichotomy between the two sides of the border.”

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PUBLISHABLE EDITOR’S NOTE

For clients running the entire package online, we recommend adding the URL to this editor’s note: 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of “Divided Families,” an in-depth reporting project by advanced students in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, supported by a grant from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. 

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A FAMILY DIVIDED

NOTE: The following two stories are intended to run together. 

LEFT BEHIND, A TEENAGER TRIES TO HOLD ON TO LIFE IN AMERICA 

RIMROCK, Ariz. _ Humberto was getting ready to go to school one morning when he heard the police bang on the front door.  “It’s them,” his brother said, looking through the living room window at Immigration and Customs Enforcement minivans. The officers showed Humberto’s family what they expected to see _ documents ordering that his mother and two older brothers be deported. On that April morning a year ago, Humberto watched the minivan carrying his family disappear down the street. He hasn’t seen his mother and older brothers since.

Slug Divided Families: Left Behind. By Amanda Soares, with photos by Deanna Dent. 1130 words.

NOTE: Video is available with this story.

AMERICAN AT HEART: FAMILY STRUGGLES TO START OVER IN MEXICO

IXTAPAN DE LA SAL, Mexico _ Hector and Marcos are about as American as two young men can be. They wear jeans and T-shirts. They are rarely without their cell phones. They like American music and American movies. But after spending most of their lives in the United States, the two brothers were deported last year along with their mother. They now live in a tiny, dim house thousands of miles from the place they grew up and from the country they consider home. They miss their friends back home in Rimrock, Ariz., where they lived in a house that seems luxuriant in memory. They miss their brother, Humberto, who was not taken the morning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials came to their Rimrock, Ariz., home. They are struggling to speak only Spanish, to make new friends, to adjust to a country that is theirs by birth but feels as unfamiliar as a foreign land.

Slug Divided Families: American at Heart. By Aja B. Viafora and Amanda Soares, with photos by Ashley Lowery and Aja B. Viafora. 990 words.

NOTE: Video and a Soundslides presentation are available with this story.

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DESOLATION, ISOLATION MAKE BORDER PATROL JOBS MORE DIFFICULT

PAPAGO FARMS, Ariz. _ Just over the western horizon, 2 1/2 hours outside any major city, dust flies into the air. Border Patrol agents are tracking ghosts. Until the agents see the migrants crossing here in person, they’re nothing but a spiral of dust or a footprint soaked up by soft sand. It’s a difficult job, made more difficult by the desolation of the place and the isolation from families and loved ones. Out here, there’s no Blockbuster, no after-work bar and, often, no family nearby. Much is said about the immigrant families divided by the U.S.-Mexican border. But little attention is paid to the Border Patrol agents whose work keeps them divided from their families, often for long periods at a time. For these women and men, separation is part of the job.

Slug Divided Families: Border Patrol. By Ryan Kost, with photos by Ryan A. Ruiz. 1130 words.

DIVIDED FAMILY SERVES CHURCH SOUTH OF THE BORDER 

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico _ On a Sunday morning at Templo Mikedash, it’s hard to miss the Zavala family. Efrain, 22, sings and plays his guitar as part of the Methodist church’s band. His brother Damian, 21, leads the congregation in prayers. Another brother, Saul, and their mother, Isabel, sing and pray along. The family started attending Templo Mikedash while living in San Luis Río Colorado, the Mexican border town that’s home to this congregation of about 100. And they still attend, even though they now live across the U.S.-Mexico border in Somerton, Ariz. The Zavalas’ ties to their church and their past have led them to live a life that is itself divided by the U.S.-Mexico border.

Slug Divided Families: Churches. By Brian Indrelunas, with photos by Ryan A. Ruiz. 965 words.

NOTE: Video is available with this story.

DEATH IN THE DESERT FORCES FAMILY TO START AGAIN IN MEXICO 

DURANGO, Mexico _ Hector Valdez walks daughters Sandra and Nancy to school, holding their backpacks until he kisses them goodbye and watches them march away wearing their uniforms and smiles. Being a father to these two girls is a new experience for Valdez, as is discovering his daughters’ personalities. He’s found Sandra, who is 12, to be quiet and shy.  Nancy, 11, is a budding writer who enjoys working on stories. As he learns about these two young girls and gets reacquainted with an adult daughter in Mexico, Valdez also is adjusting to life in a community and a country that he hasn’t lived in for nearly a decade. Almost a month after setting out from this colonial city in north-central Mexico, Valdez’s wife, Maria Graciela Hernandez Escobedo, has accomplished what she wanted so dearly: to reunite her family. Later on this fall day, Valdez, Sandra and Nancy, along with relatives and friends, will gather to pray for Maria’s soul.

Slug Divided Families: Death in the Desert. By Teana Wagner, with photos by Ashley Lowery. 1560 words.

NOTE: Video and a Sondslides presentation are available with this story.

FAMILY SEARCHES FOR BROTHER WHO VANISHED CROSSING BORDER

YUMA, Ariz. _ After spending three weeks trying to cross the border from México into Arizona, 31-year-old Porfirio Montufar had finally made it. It was a trip that Porfirio, a Mexican national, had made several times before. For the past 13 years, Porfirio had lived and worked in Mesa, Ariz., but would return periodically to his hometown in Hidalgo, Mexico, to visit his wife, toddler and his mother. After each visit, he would sneak back across the border, dodging the U.S. Border Patrol, and make the 1,500-mile journey back to Mesa. Porfirio is one of the hundreds of immigrants who die or go missing during desert crossings each year. There were 214 recorded migrant deaths along the Arizona borders in 2004, the year that Porfirio disappeared, and his family fears he may be among them.

Slug Divided Families: Missing. By Aja B. Viafora, with photos by Branden Eastwood. 1185 words.

EXPERTS: IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL COULD REMOVE EDGE FOR FAMILIES

UNDATED _ For years, immigration law in the United States has given an edge to families. Those who can show that they have family members in this country have a better shot at getting a student visa, a work permit and even the ultimate prize: citizenship. That’s still true, but if immigration laws ever get a serious overhaul _ something that Congress has been putting off for years _ any advantage for families divided by borders could very well disappear, experts say. Those on both sides of the immigration issue say the debate is far from over.

Slug Divided Families: Policy. By Brian Indrelunas, with photos. 930 words.

SOME IMMIGRANTS LEAVING ARIZONA IN FACE OF EMPLOYER SANCTIONS LAW

AVONDALE, Ariz. _ In the corner of a living room in a small house that he rents in this Phoenix suburb, Juan Carlos has piled six black garbage bags stuffed with clothes and housewares along with an old vacuum cleaner. Juan Carlos, 50, said he will donate some of his possessions to a local church and send others to family in Mexico. Unable to afford a moving truck and unsure of his future in Arizona, Juan Carlos is preparing to leave behind his wife and daughter, both undocumented immigrants, for a new state and a new life. Juan Carlos, who has a worker visa, declined to give his last name to protect the anonymity of his wife and daughter, who are in Arizona illegally. Increasing hostility towards undocumented immigrants and the fear of repercussions from Arizona’s new employer-sanctions law has motivated Juan Carlos to seek a livelihood elsewhere.

Slug Divided Families: Leaving Arizona. By Lean Duran, with photos by Ashley Lowery. 1290 words.

NOTE: Video and a Soundslides presentation are available with this story.

WORTH BILLIONS, REMITTANCES TO MEXICO ARE BIG BUSINESS 

As he has done most every week for eight years, Pedro Cordova Martinez steps into El Paisano Mercado, a convenience store near his home in Tempe, Ariz., and makes his way to the back. There he encounters two cashiers standing behind a glass panel waiting for the end-of-the-week rush. His hands are caked with grime. Dirt has permanently darkened fingernails that reach into his pocket and pull out $100 in cash, which Martinez hands to one of the women working the counter. Every week, it is the same routine. Martinez is one of 6.6 million Mexican citizens living and working in the United States who send money, known as remittances, back to their families. More than $23 billion flowed from the United States to Mexico in 2006, and a little more than that was expected to be transferred in 2007, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

Slug Divided Families: Remittances. By Kristi Eaton, with photos by Deanna Dent. 1780 words.

NOTE: This story was reported from San Isidro and Jesus Maria, Mexico, and from Tempe, Ariz.

DAVID’S STORY ONE OF MANY INVOLVING MEXICAN TEENS CROSSING BORDER

ZAMAJAPA, Mexico _ When David Tetzoyolt Juarez was caught trying to cross illegally into Arizona from Mexico, he had no money, no ability to speak the language and no idea that his planned destination _ Mississippi _ was actually a state more than 1,000 miles from where he stood. The 15-year-old only knew that he wanted to make a better life for his family, and he believed he would find it on the other side of the U.S. border. But just a few minutes after crossing the border, David was stopped by the Border Patrol. And a week later, he was back living with his mother and two brothers in Zamajapa, Veracruz. Back in the dirt-floor house, sharing one bedroom with his mother and two brothers. Back to watching the rogue chickens and dogs roam in and out of the house with no doors. David is one of thousands of undocumented teenagers caught every month trying to cross into the United States and sent back to their homeland.

Slug Divided Families: David’s Story. By Kristi Eaton, with photos by Ryan A. Ruiz. 745 words.

CHILD DETAINEES: A STORY IN PHOTOS

Every month, thousands of undocumented teenagers are caught trying to cross into the United States. The teens travel by plane, bus and sometimes foot, thousands of miles _ often on their own _ to try to reach the United States. After they are caught, many are sent to Mexican-run shelters along the border, staying there until they can be sent back to their families, many of them in southern Mexico. From January through August of 2007, Mexican officials repatriated more than 20,000 teenagers, according to the National Institute of Migration. The majority of them were seeking jobs in the United States. Ryan A. Ruiz of Cronkite News Service tells the stories of some of these teenagers in these photographs.

Slug Divided Families: Child Detainees. A Photo Story by Ryan A. Ruiz. 13 photos.

FAMILY HOPING FOR MIRACLE AS TUCSON MAN FACES DEPORTATION 

TUCSON, Ariz. _ Victor Napoles, a 21-year-old Mexican national who grew up in Tucson, is facing deportation after losing a case that began with him barking at another man’s dog. That man turned out to be a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Now Napoles, the oldest of five children and “the man of the family,” is facing the consequences of the impulsive late-night joke that occurred more than a year ago in Tucson. The case shows how, for an undocumented immigrant, even a seemingly insignificant joke can have dire effects.

Slug Divided Families: Dream Act. By Angela Le, with photos by Brendan Eastwood. 1090 words.

‘ONION KING’ BATTLES U.S. OFFICIALS OVER RESIDENCY APPLICATION 

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico _ He’s called the “Onion King.” Jesús Bustamante owns the company that farms 4,000 acres of dates, pomegranates, radishes and green onions here, just across the border from Yuma. Bustamante grew up here in a poor family, attended college to become an engineer and has served as mayor of the city. Bustamante says he’s just an honest farmer who has had good luck in business. But members of the U.S. government have a different view of him. Their suspicions have fueled a nearly six-year legal battle that Bustamante has waged against members of the American government, from the officials who handled his residency application all the way up to the U.S. attorney general.

Slug Divided Families: Fighting the System. Story and photos by Jordan LaPier. 1060 words.

NOTE: Video is available with this story.

WITH FATHER DEPORTED, DIVIDED FAMILY STRUGGLES TO STAY CONNECTED

TUXTLAN, Mexico _ Van Bui Rios holds her sleeping son in her lap as the small airplane carries them across the U.S.-Mexico border.  Bui is headed to Guadalajara to see her husband, David Rios, who was deported from the United States to Mexico in the fall of 2007.  The trip is only three hours by plane from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where Bui and her 1-year-old son live, but the trip itself was three months in the making. David Jr. has fallen asleep, and he wakes with a start when his father picks him up at the airport. This is where Rios has lived with his godmother since being escorted across the border into Juarez, Mexico, last fall.

Slug Divided Families: Deportee Family. Story and photos by Deanna Dent. 1110 words.

CONNECTED BY VIDEO

NOTE: The following two stories and a sidebar are intended to run together. There is video available for this package.

TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS SEPARATED FAMILIES TO REUNITE THROUGH VIDEO

LOS ANGELES _ Feliciano left his home in Guatemala late one night while his son and daughter were sleeping. He kissed them both, held his wife one last time and wiped the tears from her face. She watched him disappear around the corner, bound for a bus that would take him north across Mexico toward the United States. He eventually made it to Houston and then to Los Angeles, where his brother lives. For three long years, Feliciano would not see his family. And when he finally did, it was on a widescreen 55-inch TV in the offices of Amigo Latino, a teleconferencing service that connects families in Latin America and the United States through broadband television.

Slug Divided Familes: Technology-Los Angeles. By Leah Duran. 805 words.

THE VIEW FROM GUATEMALA CITY: ‘DADDY, HURRY BACK HOME SOON’

GUATEMALA CITY _ Pricila kept trying to explain to her two young children where their father had gone. He went to the United States to work, she would tell them. No, he wouldn’t be home today, and not tomorrow, either. But he would come home some day. For the next three years, Pricila and Feliciano would communicate only by telephone. Feliciano promised he would visit, but the trip was too dangerous, and both grew tired of waiting. A few weeks before Pricila’s 33rd birthday last year, Feliciano told her that he had found a way for them to see each other again.

Slug Divided Families: Technology-Guatemala City. Story and photos by Adrian Barrera. 710 words.

With Divided Families: Technology-Amigo Latino. A sidebar explaining the company and its technology.

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WITH MANY GONE NORTH, SOME MEXICO TOWNS SHORT ON YOUNG MEN 

ZACATECAS, Mexico _ Not long ago, Francisco Javier Balderas Medina, 18, was getting ready to try to cross illegally into the United States along with most of the rest of his friends from the small town of El Cargadero. But he knew his father disapproved, and he was scared. At the last minute, he changed his mind and stayed behind. Medina says he misses his friends, but he admits to one big advantage for a young man: plenty of unattached young women. Nearly half of the population of this state in north-central Mexico has left for the United States over the past couple of decades. Most are young men. Many never return. As a result, Medina and other young men like him live in towns populated mostly by women, girls, young boys and old men.

Slug Divided Families: Empty Towns. By Adrian Barrera, with photos by Brendan Eastwood and Deanna Dent. 710 words.

MANY HEADED TO U.S. WIND UP AT MAQUILADORA PLANTS ON BORDER 

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico _  Neftali Fuentes left his home, family and everything he knew in Chiapas last fall to seek out the promise of work and opportunity along the U.S.-Mexico border. After an exhausting three-day bus ride, 18-year-old Neftali arrived in Agua Prieta, Sonora, tired and homesick. He settled in with his uncle, aunt and two cousins in a one-bedroom house. Soon after, he began working at Levolor, one of the largest maquiladoras in Agua Prieta. Neftali is one of the more than 1 million Mexican immigrants who leave their homes in southern Mexico each year, hoping to find work in the United States but instead end up employed at a maquiladora export assembly plant along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Slug Divided Families: Maquiladoras. By Codie Sanchez, with photos by Courtney Sargent. 1515 words.

ELDERLY OFTEN LEFT BEHIND WHEN RELATIVES CROSS THE BORDER 

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico _ Grandmothers and grandfathers, nanas y tatas, are often left behind when family members illegally cross into the United States. The elderly can’t make the harsh and dangerous trip across the desert, and with tighter border enforcement, it’s hard for families to return for visits. The result: senior citizens’ homes all along the Mexican border, filled with elderly residents, many of them long forgotten. “The young people of this country leave their elderly family members here while they try to make it into the U.S.,” said La Divina Coordinator Rosa Tarazon. “Abandoned people are becoming more and more common along the border.”

Slug Divided Families: Generation Abandoned. Photos by Courtney Sargent, with intro and vignettes story by Codie Sanchez. 1650 words.

NOTE: A Soundslides presentation is available with this story. This package can be run as a photo story accompanied by introductory text and vignettes about the people featured or as a story accompanied by photos. Photos for each person featured are listed below the story. Clients are encouraged to offer a link to the Soundslides presentation accompanying the package.