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"Not long after I got back from my trip along the Mexican border, I got a call from my sister, who\u2019s an occupational therapist in New Orleans. An undocumented Mexican kid, 21 years old, had fallen off a roof and broken his neck at level C3. He was paralyzed from the neck down and the prognosis was not good. He was uninsured, and, though Medicaid covered the cost of his surgery, he was out of luck as far as subsequent rehabilitation, or a wheelchair sophisticated enough to give him even a semblance of a life. Needless to say, he doesn\u2019t have much to look forward to. (The consulting neurosurgeon has communicated to my sister that he thinks it unlikely the kid will ever get any function back).\n\nMy sister\u2019s been doing this kind of work for over 20 years, but told me she\u2019s never had a case affect her as much as this one. The boy, who was unmarried, had been working in the U.S. since he was 17 and sending all of his money home to his mother in Veracruz. \u201CThis boy is the sweetest, most polite person,\u201C my sister wrote me, \u201Cand I wake up at night thinking about him.\u201C She described how, despite what must be a terrifying situation (the hospital has delayed telling him the full story on his condition, in hopes that his mother could be brought to the U.S. beforehand) he has been unfailingly gracious\u2014even apologetic\u2014to the people caring for him.\n\nThis story particularly moved me, I guess in part because I\u2019d just come back from the border, where I\u2019d seen what odds these immigrant workers struggle against; how the deck is stacked against them from both sides, when all they are really trying to do is make a decent living for themselves and their loved ones. One thing it seemed all sides of this debate agreed on when I was down there is this: the weight always falls on the little guy.\n\nAnyway, my sister and I have undertaken a kind of modest mission to try and improve this kid\u2019s situation, and GQ has generously allowed me to post here. I appreciate their generosity, and yours. Our main goal is to provide him with a wheelchair adequate to his needs. Anything we collect beyond that will go to help him get re-established at home, receive the additional rehabilitation he\u2019ll need, and help out his family the best we can.\n\nIf you\u2019d like to send a check, please send it to: P.O, Box 302, DeWitt, New York, 13214, made out to \u201CFund for N.M.,&amp;quot; and he\u2019ll get every damn cent.\n\nThanks so much, and Happy Holidays.\n\nGeorge Saunders\n\n\n\nOnce upon a time, there was a wealthy country. Just to the south was a poor country. Between them ran a border. People from the poor country were always sneaking over, trying to partake of the wealth of the wealthy country. The people in the wealthy country resented this. Or some did. Some seemed fine with it, and even helped them once they got here. Some said it was a crisis and a big wall was needed. Others said: What crisis, it\u2019s been going on for years, plus they work so cheap, you want to pay nine bucks for a freaking quart of strawberries? The national media seized on the story and, as always, screwed it up: reduced it to pithy sound bites, politicized it, and injected it with faux urgency, until, lo, the nation was confused.\n\nThen, a man, a Writer\u2014me, actually\u2014decided to venture forth, to nd some answers. Was it a crisis? Was all this excitement justied? Might terrorists someday come in across the border? Was the border really rife with drug-related crime? I went boldly, driving from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, armed with the ancient tools: objectivity, open-mindedness, a laptop, a rented minivan\u2014a Chrysler Town &amp;amp; Country, to be exact, with electronic everything, including rear and sliding side doors. So as our story unfolds, please imagine these doors periodically sliding/flying open, in the middle of epic southwestern landscapes, for no reason at all, or simply because I\u2019ve tried to change the radio station.\n\nGo to Jail, After Eight Times, Go Directly to Jail\n\nIn the temporary detention center at the Laredo North Border Patrol Station, a Mexican kid slumps in a chair at a processing desk. He\u2019s going to jail for at least three months, because this is the eighth time he\u2019s been caught illegally entering the United States, and the system\u2019s patience has finally been exhausted.\n\nBorder Patrol Agent One runs a hand shyly over his new haircut, which is nearly a buzz.\n\n\u201CThat, see, I don\u2019t understand that haircut,\u201C says Agent Two, wearing a huge cowboy hat.\n\n\u201CAt least he\u2019s got hair,\u201C says Agent Three, and Agent Two blushes, acknowledging it: Yes, yes, it\u2019s true. Under this hat, I\u2019m bald.\n\nI point to my own head.\n\nWe all laugh at my hairline.\n\nThen I look over at the kid. He\u2019s sitting there expressionless, a small cat among large dogs. And now he\u2019s got to endure this balding talk, this nervous braying laughter, before he can get to the next enjoyable step (being processed), and on to the part where he gets sent o\u00AC to a foreign jail.\n\nMy heart goes out to him.\n\nSort of.\n\nBecause empathy depends on how you\u2019ve spent your day. I\u2019ve just spent mine driving around in a \u201Cmarked caged unit\u201C with Agent Three, a.k.a. Dan Garibay: visiting the muddy clearings where illegal aliens change into dry clothes after they cross, inspecting fence-cuts, driving past safe houses, hearing agents talk about tracking groups of illegals for eleven straight hours. I\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s now more profitable to traffic in humans than in drugs; that MS-13, a Salvadoran gang, is in a death struggle with the more traditional Mexican Mafia; that Border Patrol agents in Laredo are routinely shadowed by spies from the smuggling cartels who, in turn, are shadowed by a newly formed countersurveillance unit.\n\nMy relation to this Mexican kid, then, is something like that of a plumber\u2019s apprentice to a leak.\n\nDan\u2019s third-generation Mexican-American, a funny, reasonable guy who seems to be constantly considering and reconsidering the moral implications of his job. He\u2019s got nothing against illegal aliens, understands why they do what they do, has compassionate feelings toward them, and seems committed to catching them in a way that keeps them safe and leaves their dignity intact. But the law is the law, and why should those who break the law be privileged over those who\u2019ve played by the rules?\n\nSo I nd myself thinking, re this silent (sullen? unrepentant?) kid, this member of Wascals Who Insist on Trying to Elude My New Friend Dan: Dude, what did you expect? Seven times? Who doesn\u2019t learn after seven times? Do you value your freedom so lightly? Do you have a wife, kids? Do you realize you are now going to miss the next three months of their\u2014\n\nThen, imagining that he has kids, who look like little Mexican versions of my kids back when they were toddlers, I (finally) experience a little heart-pang as I flash on what I\u2019d be thinking if I were him: Laugh it up, you balding bastards, I\u2019m dying here, can\u2019t you tell I\u2019m a decent person, oh Jesus, please let me go, just this one last time, they\u2019re so cute and will never be this age again, please please, I\u2019ve made a terrible mistake.\n\nAnd what will you do if we let you go? I ask him in my mind. Will you try to get in here again? Next time, you could be looking at ve years.\n\nHe hesitates, averts his eyes.\n\nSeriously? I say. My God, is it worth it? Are things really that bad where you live?\n\nAnd he just looks at me, as if to say: Would I keep trying if it didn\u2019t make sense to keep trying, if the possible reward didn\u2019t justify possibly getting caught? Do I look stupid?\n\nHe doesn\u2019t look stupid. He looks handsome and sad and ashamed.\n\nBut mostly what he looks is: busted.\n\nBusted, and waiting to pay the price.\n\nThe full article can be found in the January 2006 issue of GQ.\n\nGeorge Saunders\u2019s most recent book is the story collection In Persuasion Nation. He was recently named a 2006 MacArthur fellow and teaches at Syracuse University."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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