are you a true believer?

Eugene Volokh, earlier this week, passed along some thoughts from an anonymous writer familiar with American immigration law. The subject: how some immigration officials determine whether folks who seek asylum religious persecution are, in fact, sincere in their faith.

Some standard questions asked by TAs to establish Christian bonafides:

Who is Jesus Christ?

What is your favorite story from the Bible?

What is your favorite prayer? Can you recite that prayer or a part of that prayer?

These seem like rather basic questions, but it is astounding how often Christian claimants cannot answer them. It is also fairly easy to spot the respondents who have been coached since they know one and only one story from the Bible, which is inevitably short-handed as: "water to wine." This is a reference to Jesus' first public miracle at a wedding in Cana and is considered an anti-Shibboleth by TAs and many IJs. Most frequently, Chinese applicants can name only this Bible story, as a result of being coached by the smugglers they use to enter the United States. Similarly, applicants who have been coached will say "the Lord's Prayer" is their favorite, and then recite some variation of the traditional Catholic grace before a meal (i.e. not the Lord's Prayer). The smugglers abroad and "immigration consultants" here in the United States are not very imaginative and have no real interest in their victims, so these responses do not change that often.

Worth reading in full; many of the comments are insightful as well. Fascinating on cultural, linguistic, legal, epistemological, and theological levels.

Mike Huckabee and the bona fide immigration flip-flop

Maybe this is the year of the Republican flip-flopper. It's no secret that Mitt Romney exudes an aura of charmed convenience. A leading rival, Meteoric Mike Huckabee, seemed immune to the charges until now. Christopher Beam explains:

Mike Huckabee’s new immigration plan, unveiled today, is a case in point. Titled the “Secure America Plan,” its bullet points include “Build the fence,” “Increase border patrol,” and “Prevent amnesty,” with this little sub-bullet:

“Propose to provide all illegal immigrants a 120-day window to register with the Citizenship and Immigration Services and leave the country. Those who register and return to their home country will face no penalty if they later apply to immigrate or visit; those who do not return home will be, when caught, barred from future reentry for a period of 10 years.”

What happened to the Huckabee-approved “pathway to citizenship”? Here’s what he said in an inteview last year: “To think that we're going to go lock up 12 million people or even round them up and drive them to the border and let them go might make a great political speech but it's not going to happen."

Why the switch from “pathway to citizenship” to deport-and-blockade? Chalk it up to the tuition breaks flap. In the past few weeks, Huckabee has defended an Arkansas program that would have reduced tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. He claims he doesn’t want to punish children for their parents’ crimes—or, as he says, “sins.” But his opponents, and Romney in particular, have no trouble grilling his cakes over it.

The lengthier Huckabee riff on immigration, in the full transcript, adds whiplash to the flip-flop.

I tend to think that the rational approach is to find a way to give people a pathway to citizenship. You shouldn't ignore the law or ignore those who break it. But by the same token, I think it's a little disingenuous when I hear people say they should experience the full weight of the law in every respect with no pathway, because that's not something we practice in any other area of criminal justice in this country.

We have everything from plea bargainings to suspended sentences to probation to clemency. There's a whole gamut of ways in which there are lesser than the full penalties applied for a whole variety of reasons -- everything from jail overcrowding to non-violent offenses.

To think that we're going to go lock up 12 million people, or even round them up and drive them to the border and let them go, might make a great political speech, but it's not going to happen. What should happen, however, is exactly what I think the president has proposed, and that is that we create a process where people make restitution for the fact they have broken the law.

It's not an amnesty, and I know that there are some who think that anything less than essentially grabbing them by the nape of the neck and tossing them over a fence, real or imaginary, is amnesty. But I think that's ridiculous. And whether it's Patrick Kennedy, Rush Limbaugh, or an illegal immigrant, there ought to be some rationality in how we apply our law. We do that every day.

I would imagine if any of us checked the record of prosecutors in my state or yours there are far more sentences that are plea bargained than actually go to trial. And that it's pretty darn rare that a person even convicted at trial gets the maximum sentence on every charge brought. It's just not always the way we do it.

Suddenly to say that these people that came over here to pluck a chicken, pick a tomato, or make a bed should suffer the full consequences of the law as if somehow they've totally violated our peace and prosperity, is absurd. Now, should they have to pay some type of fine? Should they have to get in line behind the ones who are going through the legal process? Sure. That's quite appropriate. But criminalizing beyond what they've already been criminalized, I mean, they've already broken the law. But to make them felons and in essence to say we're going to put our heel on their head, what's the point of that?

The point of that, to use Huckabee's own words, is to pander to the "certain segment of the population that is truly exercised about this and virtually nothing but this. And they've gone to seed on it." Now who else has gone to seed?

Update 1/16/2008: Wow. I thought Huck's transformation into Tancredo was disingenuous, but I never imagined it was a complete sham.

Prophet Atlantis: this primary's quixotic candidate

He won't make it to the second round, but at least he's giving it his all. His name is Prophet Atlantis. From the Voter's Pamphlet:

I support: Borders, language, culture! Protect our borders and deport all illegal aliens and deport those that hire illegals. No social services or benefits to illegals. English the official language. No amnesty! No chain immigration.

Use eminent domain to take over empty houses and buildings for needy families. THe homeless mentally ill should be placed into well run mental hospitals.

Compare the original (cached by Google, but strangely absent from Olyblog):

Borders, language, culture! Protect our borders and deport all illegal aliens and arrest those that hire illegals. No social services or benefits to illegals. English the official language. No amnesty! No chain immigration. Any religion or group in America saying they will kill Americans or Christians or Jews or non-believers must change their beliefs or be banned!

Put convicts into a military Second Chance Program under the military code of justice. Sexual offenders and predators should be castrated! Use eminent domain to take over empty houses and buildings for needy families. The homeless mentally ill should be placed into well run mental hospitals. National Health care program for all!

A longtime campaigner, Prophet Atlantis has run for several state and local offices, sometimes as a Republican. If you want to elect the "most dangerous, craziest man in America," choose Prophet Atlantis for City Council, Position 3.

support your local taco bus

Salinas, California: where the taco trucks can't roam. At least, that's how some restaurateurs want it.

“We all love Mexico, but once you jump on a plane you leave Mexico behind,” said Antonio Campos, the owner of a Mexican restaurant here. “Once you are in America, you have rules, regulations and standards.”

Taco trucks “should go to the fields and feed the agriculture guys,” said Mr. Campos, 29, a Salinas native of Mexican descent.

Mr. Campos and others want taco trucks off east Salinas streets. “If they are mobile vendors, keep them mobile. We have way more overhead and the competition is not on a level playing field,” Mr. Campos said.

Tom Tancredo can carp all he wants to about Hispanic immigrants being too slack to adopt Americanism, but this article pretty much writes the obituary for that myth.

This afternoon, I'm going to patronize the eastside California Tacos with double my usual vigor. God bless taco trucks wherever they may be found.

[via Jacob Sullum]

catching the watchers

You can build a big fence. You can pack the border with guards. You can invest in high-tech gizmos and sign up citizen volunteers to watch for coyotes, literal and metaphorical. But you're battling human nature, and it's a pretty tough fight.

Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, 26, and Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco, 25, both of Laredo, and Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr., 36, of Fort Worth, were arrested near Laredo.

A Border Patrol agent found 24 illegal immigrants inside a van Torres was driving along Interstate 35 near Cotulla, Texas, about 68 miles north of the border, prosecutors said. Torres was in uniform at the time of his arrest. The van was leased by the National Guard.

Prosecutors accused Hodge of helping Torres pass through a Border Patrol checkpoint on the highway by making it look like the two were conducting Guard business. Pacheco was accused of recruiting soldiers to transport the migrants for $1,000 to $3,500 a trip.

a spelling bee story for our time

Kunah Sah is bound for Washington, D.C. for a chance to compete in the world's greatest nerd-off. (The National Spelling Bee. I ought to know.) His parents, though, have been deported to India, unable to secure a permanent visa because of this country's unfriendly immigration laws.

Ken and Sarita live in a kind of limbo, moving from the home of one relative to another, unable to start new lives with their son and businesses in America, and hoping against hope that some kind of miracle will lift them from desolation.

"You have millions of [undocumented] people who have broken the law, and no one is forcing them out [of the U.S.]," Ken says. "But I followed the law - and this is my reward for being honest."

They lived here legally for sixteen years. It took the U.S. that long to deny them asylum.

[via Obscure Store. special thanks to commentator Joe.]

Cal Thomas is afraid of family values

How else to explain this?

In the United States, former presidential candidate and journalist Pat Buchanan again is stirring controversy by trying to give sight to the willfully blind. An open border that allows anyone to come to the United States, he asserts, means the country is headed for self-destruction. Buchanan's figures are irrefutable: one in 12 illegal immigrants has a criminal record; by 2050 there will be 100 million Hispanics (at current immigration rates) concentrated in the American Southwest, as some radicals plot to undo the results of the Mexican-American War.

Even if we put on a Cal Thomas lens and try to lump all Hispanics into one category, that category is overwhelmingly Catholic, married, and self-identified as religious at the same rate as Whites. (In fact, Thomas ought to be more concerned about all those secular Asians, by far the least religious ethnic group.)

The most likely reason that Hispanics don't vote for God-fearing, gun-toting, national-security-protecting Republicans is the GOP's association with stances like Thomas's. Ironically, if Cal Thomas wanted a permanent values-voting majority, he'd do his best to woo Hispanic voters.

(Incidentally, that 1 in 12 illegal immigrants stat is misleading as well.)

do as I say, and only in English

Via Nick Gillespie, we learn of Steve Lonegan, mayor of Bogota, NJ, who is offended by a Spanish-language sign.

Mayor Steve Lonegan said the McDonald's billboard on River Road near Elm Avenue and the railroad overpass is offensive because it sends the message that Spanish speakers and immigrants do not need to learn how to speak English.

"English is the language that binds us as a community and as a country," Lonegan said Thursday. "This billboard says, 'You Hispanics can't learn English, so we're going to put up this sign.' It's really sending the wrong message."

Minor problem: on the left hand side of Bogota, NJ's municipal website, far below Lonegan's photo, is a funny little graphic.

How thoughtful--a newcomer can read the city's website in Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Italian, Portuguese, or... Spanish.

illegal immigration anagram

1. $999,999 is as high as I'll go for this auto repository.
2. Get to shuttle moms, aunts, sisters, and grandmas in a stretch Hummer.
3. Paper-folding whiz feels a strange vibration.
4. Watch out: Sheen sibling acquires Midas touch.
5. Nonnative netminder downed by diptheria.
6. Why can't the reptilian just say what we all know isn't true?

Click "read more" to see the answers.



1. GARAGE LIMIT: MILLION
2. MATRILINEAL LIMO GIG
3. ORIGAMI MILL ATINGLE
4. ALARMING EMILIO GILT
5. IMMIGRANT GOALIE ILL
6. ALLIGATOR MIMING LIE



[ninety-ninth in a series]

the harping index: illegal immigration edition

I'm going to continue harping on this because it's important.

At latest estimate there are nearly 2.2 million people in jail or prison in the United States. (1.4 million in jail; .75 million in prison.)

At latest estimate 55,322 of these are illegal immigrants.

If we accommodate a bit and assume the number of illegal immigrants incarcerated has increased since then to 60,000 total, where does this leave us, statistically speaking?

60,000 divided by 2.15 million. Illegal immigrants represent 2.8% of the jail and prison population.

10 million divided by 300 million. Illegal immigrants represent 3.3% of the overall population.

58% of all arrests of illegal aliens occurred in California. Yet the Golden State doesn't even crack the top five for rate of incarceration.

We need more sanity in the immigration debate. Maybe these numbers will help.

Stratfor on illegal immigration

While I'm still investigating the trickle of responses (we'll see if it turns into a flood) to the GAO study of arrested illegal aliens' criminal activity, I should note a level-headed analysis by Fred Burton of Stratfor.

Beneath all of these politically charged issues, however, lies a more subtle danger posed by criminal aliens, one frequently overlooked or simply glossed over in the debates. It is a quiet threat; the risks to national security are quite small, but criminals mixing in with the tide of other legal and illegal migrants crossing the border can directly threaten the security of private American citizens and corporations in very real ways.

There is an important point to be made here: The vast majority of illegal aliens in the United States -- whether they cross the border in hopes of becoming American citizens or as temporary economic migrants -- are not violent criminals. They have powerful economic incentives to enter the country; many unskilled laborers can earn more in one hour working in the United States than they earn in an entire day in their home country. Moreover, the economies in many countries that contribute to the problem are partly or largely dependent on remittances from both legal and illegal aliens working in the United States -- so officials there have few incentives to help control document fraud or discourage emigration.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens in the United States, most of whom view the country as a "land of opportunity." Among this multitude are a minority who perceive a land of criminal opportunity as well.

As is often said, read the whole thing.

the first nativist responds

And, as predicted, uncritically, with saber-rattling to boot. "The findings are awfully telling." Except not in the way you might think.

Added: The second chimes in. "If they are sent back, who will commit the crimes?" he asks. Well, duh. These idiots will. (Don't worry, there are plenty more like them.)

And another, mentioning damning numbers. "YES to well-vetted, screened, qualified, desireable [sic] immigrants. NO to illegals." How about "NO to uncritical commentary" instead.

Another including a derogatory epithet.

Another with a double whammy: the bogus "95% of warrants" at no extra charge.

This time, uncritical passing-along by "The Lawman."

Why nuance when it's not deserved? I declare it thoughtless, no hesitation.

By and large the MSM hasn't picked up on the story, so far, perhaps because of liberal biases, or perhaps because the statistics are a non-starter. But not to this commentator.

What was staggering was that for the studied population of 55,322 incarcerated illegal immigrants, these numbers represented “about 8 arrests per illegal alien” and “about 13 offenses per illegal alien.”

Which really isn't all that staggering, especially when nearly all felons are under wraps for multiple offenses. Whatevah.

Innumeracy from The Other Side:

Hmmmm… and that’s only arrests: we all know the statistic that most criminals commit anywhere from four to eight crimes for each time they’re arrested. Taking six as the median, that means that the group of 55,332 illegal aliens committed about 4.2 million crimes. Somebody calculate what that costs the country—my little calculator hits the “.+E” wall with all those zeroes.

Even if six really is the median number of crimes per arrest, that would mean approximately 2.75 million crimes, a drop in the bucket'o'criminality.

And then there's Denise, who can't tell the difference between an arrested illegal immigrant and your everyday variety.

What does this tell you? It tells me they are definitely putting a strain on the economy, and that they’re not coming across the border merely to do the jobs that legal residents won’t do. Unless those legal residents were waiting to commit these crimes and got cheated out of the opportunity. And please note, there is no mention of what nationality these criminals hail from. That’s because it doesn’t matter. Don’t be fooled, people. This is not a race discrimination case. It’s a matter of national security.

And a matter of inexcusable ignorance.

Last, for now, let's not forget the aptly-named American Blowhole, which is so bad it might be parody.

Okay, not last, because there's Jim Kouri again, asking how you say "chutzpah" in Spanish. (It's cojones.)

And then there's McQ, who has the cojones to link to a NewsMax article claiming that 17% of the (federal--and this is unmentioned by McQ, but important) prison population are illegal immigrants--but doesn't have the cerebro to check the numbers for himself. A DOJ report from 2004 notes that "An estimated 8% of jail inmates were not U.S. citizens, unchanged from 1996."

GAO report on illegal immigration

Update, 11:04 a.m. Reflecting on this post, I saw an error in my reasoning, which I will correct momentarily. It may affect the results.

Update, 11:15 a.m. The math has been corrected. The results do not significantly change the conclusions.



We'll have to wait to see how the xenophobes respond to this one--since the statistics, this time, aren't bogus. A GAO study examines over 50,000 illegal aliens in the prison population at all levels (federal, state, and local), finding that, among other things,

* They were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.

* They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests.[Footnote 6] Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses. About 45 percent of all offenses were drug or immigration offenses. About 15 percent were property-related offenses such as burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and property damage. About 12 percent were for violent offenses such as murder, robbery, assault, and sex-related crimes. The balance was for such other offenses as traffic violations, including driving under the influence; fraud--including forgery and counterfeiting; weapons violations; and obstruction of justice.

The immediate problem with these statistics is the lack of context. Sure, imprisoned illegal immigrants have committed crimes, many of them--just like all other criminals. But are they more likely to offend? Overburdening the system? Incarcerated for worse crimes? Inquiring nativists want to know. (Others, I'm sure, are equally interested.)

A moment's investigation gives reason for caution. According to a 2004 Department of Justice report (with statistics as frequent as 2002), despite increasing numbers of permanent illegal aliens from Mexico--the unexpected result of tighter border security--the percentage of ethnic or racial minorities in prison stayed the same between 1996 and 2002.

Furthermore, compare percentages of crimes from the overall population to the subpopulation of illegal aliens, and see that they're skewed in favor of the aliens.

Most serious offense, 2002, all incarcerated:
Violent offenses: 25.4% [compared to 12% 15.1% of non-immigration offenses above]
Property offenses: 24.4% [compared to 15% 19% of non-immigration offenses above]
Drug offenses: 24.7 % [compared to 30.3% of non-immigration offenses above]
Public-order offenses: 24.9%

Take away the number of offenses related to illegal immigration--forgery, obstruction of justice (for flight), and the like--and the ratios skew even further a little closer to the expected rate--but remember that the overall numbers include illegal immigrants, which means they would be higher in nearly all cases if aliens were excepted.

In sum, illegal aliens as a whole are no more likely, and may even be less likely to commit violent offenses.

I'm sure criminal experts will have a much more detailed analysis soon. I'll try to post updates when they're available. I'll also keep track of the "95% of warrants" crowd, to see if they latch on to this study. I predict they will--and I predict they'll misinterpret the results.

Added (see above): I forgot to subtract immigration offenses (21%) from the first study total when comparing the rates of offenses. The percentages above are revised according to the correction. I'm no statistician, so if you see any other errors, please let me know.


[GAO link via Instapundit]

shiny and new II

I hereby declare "Laugh-A-Minutemen" as the official designation for the rowdy band of xenophobes perigrinating across the border states.

(As far as I know, "An Odyssey of Homers" is also original to yours truly.)

the rumor mill: 95% of warrants edition

Someone went trolling for xenophobes, and the xenophobes bit hard. It comes as no surprise: people pass on borderline (or outright) racist bullshit all the time.

If you're one of the gilled, you might want to wriggle out of the hook post-haste.

[Thanks to the irrepressible Tim Cavanaugh]

globalization makes it all possible

Illegal immigration is a growing problem, reports The Onion.

As dozens of major American corporations continue to move their manufacturing operations to Mexico, waves of job-seeking Mexican immigrants to the United States have begun making the deadly journey back across the border in search of better-paying Mexican-based American jobs.

"I came to this country seeking the job I sought when I first left this country," said Anuncio Reyes, 22, an undocumented worker who recrossed the U.S. border into Mexico last month, three years after leaving Mexico for the United States to work as an agricultural day laborer....

Reyes now works as a spot-welder on the assembly line of a Maytag large-appliance plant and earns $22 a day, most of which he sends back to his family in the U.S., who in turn send a portion of that back to the original family they left in Mexico. Like many former Mexican-Americans forced by circumstance to become American-Mexicans, Reyes dreams of one day bringing his relatives to Mexico so that they, too, may secure American employment in Mexico.

Just like the Gillette story, give it time, and it'll come true.

I rage and rail and rant for no one but myself

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
But in small doses.
Let's not overdo it.

Immigrants, legal or no, rally by the thousands across America. Politicians harp. Pundits carp. Citizens join in, frown in disagreement, lend support, toss obscenities, or plug along without even noticing. Where were you today?

Magic laws make borders appear in the desert where Nature makes no distinction. Laws and customs, customs and borders. A fence that keeps out keeps in.

O ye hypocrites in mansions built with the sweat of the criminal expatriate brow.

I'm an immigrant. ("Legal, mind you," a history teacher demurs when we're chatting about today's walkout rallies.) Born in Canada twenty-seven years ago, dual citizen by the rules of the time, son of an American dad and a Canadian mom. She's still Canadian, even after years in the States. Why does she hate America?

I'm proud to be an American. Sing it.

I vote. I pay taxes. I follow the laws and know the lyrics.

On days like this I can feel anarchy fizzing in my veins.

Mr. Tancredo, tear down this wall.

annual anti-American rally escapes attention of liberal media

Through negligence, an immigrant enclave that waves its ethnic identity in the face of all good Americans has flown under the radar of the liberal media. But here in bloggerland, we provide access to all the facts, exposing the underbelly of fractious ethnocentrism masked as ethnic pride. The source: little-visited Lynden, Washington, home to thousands of ethnic Dutch, a subversive minority that has spent years building up a dike of lies, conning right-thinking Americans into believing they represent only the innocent and pure love of all things Netherlandic. But the dike is full of holes. From the insidious website of an upcoming celebration of anti-Americanism:

If you're looking for a glimpse of Holland, but only have a day to explore, a trip to Lynden may be in order... Lynden Washington's Dutch heritage adds a unique touch to one of the jewels of Western Washington, ideally located between Mt. Baker and Puget Sound. The community of 10,000 will celebrate Holland Days on May 5, 2006, featuring costumed shopkeepers and Dutch Klompen Dancers, plus authentic Dutch delicacies. A standard feature is a 72 foot high windmill featuring moving blades....

Great evil lurks in Lynden. Consider these photographs, evidence of Netherlandic fervor and malicious intent.

Lynden, allied with our old enemy England and neighboring, untrustworthy Canada, flaunts its military might in our faces, while we cower, weak-kneed and wishy-washy in fear and ignorance. That's all we need, a British-backed takeover by a Dutch fifth column, an ironic conclusion to over two hundred years of freedom from King George.

Taking a page from the commie playbook, Lynden's Dutch insurgents attempt to confound the world with their strength of arms. Here, some sort of submarine amphibious device wheels through the streets of Lynden, part of a bold and provocative military demonstration.

Intelligence sources suggest that the amphibious vehicle's bright hue signals radar-absorbing paint to match its blocky, angular "stealth" shape. The windpowered engine, capable of great speeds and limitless distance, threatens our way of life.

A strange cult of red-hatted matrons, led by an elderly demagogue called Saint Nicholas, fills Lynden's cafes and schoolhouses, brainwashing young and old alike.

Preaching intolerance and fomenting sectarian strife, they tear apart the fabric of freedom, replacing it with their own quilt of repression.




America, we cannot stand idly by as subversive elements mock our freedoms and flood our streets with hate. America, WAKE UP to the threat of the Lynden Dutch! Tomorrow may be TOO LATE!

all your base are belong to themselves

Phyllis Schlafly is pissed.

Rephrase: Phyllis Schlafly is peeved. (Phyllis Schlafly would never say pissed.)

What irks Ms. Schlafly? (Ms. Schlafly would never say Ms.)

Why, Mr. Bush, that's who.

(Try saying "Phyllis Schlafly" without giggling. You can't.)

Mr. Bush's laxitude on the angrifying topic of illegal immigration is what kicks against Schlafly's goads. (You're still giggling, aren't you?)

His crimes?

• Being "tone deaf" to a united Republican majority.
• Sitting "in the pocket" of "big business lobbying interests."
• "...hallucinating that the Hispanics will vote Republican."
• Turning a blind eye to an "invasion" of Mexican troops.
• Treating Other Than Mexican immigrants like trout with "catch and release."

What is remarkable is that it took six years for Schlafly (giggle) to notice that Bush generally approves of cheap labor in any form, that a former Big Businessman would sit so comfortably in the vest pocket of Big Business.

It's too late, Phyllis Schlafly (giggle giggle). You can't join the demonic Democrats or the libertine Libertarians. What'll you do? Where'll you go? To the Constitution Party?

dying in the light

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway

Its substance is violent: twenty-six migrants, led by a perniciously naive Coyote, try to enter El Norte through a stretch of impassable desert known as El Camino Diablo.... [read more]