Immigration Captured On Camera

(CBS)  Altar, Mexico, is like the Grand Central Station of illegal immigration.

Every day, hundreds of migrants from all over Central America gather there before crossing to the United States, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America.

A few understand the danger that lies ahead, but most, like Felicia and her 15-year-old daughter Wendy, haven't a clue.

For a three-day walk through the desert, all Wendy had was a change of clothes, half a roll of toilet paper, cookies and two plastic garbage bags in case it rains or gets cold.

Part of the reason so many migrants – and U.S. citizens – have a hard time imagining what it's like to cross the border is that no one's every really visually documented the experience from both sides of the border, until now.

The Border Film Project documents the journey.

"This is a photo of a migrant who's actually drinking out of a cattle trough," says Rudy Adler, one of the organizers.

The project gave out about 1,000 disposable cameras, with pre-paid return envelopes, to both the migrants attempting to cross and the volunteer Minutemen attempting to stop them.

"We really wanted to show people the daily reality of what's happening on the border," Adler says.

The last pictures on the roll are some of the most telling. One migrant shows off how he made it.

Another ends with a border patrol helicopter hovering overhead. Yet another ends in pure pain, a migrant with blistering, bleeding feet.

Most migrants said they were the first pictures they'd ever seen from border. The shots were unsettling — but not dispiriting, especially not to Wendy.

But does she know there are people in the United States who don't want her to come?

"Si," Wendy says. She said she's been told that people in America are scared, and that they can discriminate based on the color of your skin. But she just wants to tell people that we are all the same.

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[wheezer123]

Why get mad at the migrants they have jobs to come to. Me thinks you anger is displaced who is doing the hiring folks. But most Americans have the will nor the stomach to take the battle where it really belongs. Do you?

[wheezer123]

I would like to say Americans like the ones that are complaining about this article deserve all migrants that countinue to come across the border. You keep electing people who do not represent your views. You refuse to hold those elected into office accountable. I live in Arizona no less than 1 mile from a home depot. Now I do not use the home depot due to the fact there are so many migrants hanging around I would not want to hit one of them it becomes a annoyance. S

[inspector3500]

Cont. from above:

Then, you remember that these people have really oil rich parents!! So you say, HEY! Why don't you go home and have your parents take care of you?? I'm not your sugar daddy!! To which they say, "Our daddy (Mexico) is corrupt and won't give us money, and it's too hard to try to change things with him. Why should we stay there and fight for what's ours, when we can come here, and get it for nothing? This way, we don't have to life a finger, duh!!

Imagine how you're feeling by this point.

Finally, there are so many of them, that they tell you to get out of your own house, and move back to wherever you were living before you bought this house. They say that this isn't your house anymore. The same thing has been happening to other people all over town.

[inspector3500]

Cont. from above:

They threaten to out breed you and your kind out of existence. They also claim to hate your house and your way of life. They've burned the flag you used to display proudly on your front porch, and replaced it with their own. They are busy making all kinds of demands on you; those pregnant sisters are having their babies and they expect you to pay for it - someone has to PAY for them. They tell you, "Gringo, you're out of food, buy more! And give us some money! And they say, you need to pay to teach Spanish AND English to our children. Only most of their children never graduate because they too have adopted the welfare mentality or cashed in on the lucrative drug trade, but that's besides the point.

FINALLY, you get the cajones to say, "Where the hell am I supposed to get the money to pay for all this...and why should I have to pay??!" But the interloper's and their new friends, the pro-illegal supporters, answer is, "Why should we care? Just get it, and give it to us"!!

cont. below:

[inspector3500]

Cont. from above:

One of the homies has talked your employer into hiring HIM and firing YOU, telling your employer that he'll work for less. Imagine how you're feeling by this point. Your kids seem changed, and not for the better. You soon discover that your interloper house guests are selling methamphetamine to them. Your car has disappeared, as has your wallet and watch. By this time, you've also come to realize that these people are decidedly racist against you because you're white! They call you "gringo" and "white cheese" They also say things like "Todo la Raza, Fuerza la Raza, Nada!". But wait! There's more! They think you're so weak because you've been so nice to them for so long, that if they call you "racist" first, you'll feel so bad and guilty, that you'll do nothing, and let them continue on their path of destroying your house and home!


Cont. below:

[inspector3500]

Imagine someone you know, not a friend, just distant acquaintance, coming over; trampling over your garden, dumping their trash in your yard, and stomping in your front door, sitting down at your table and eating, and setting up camp in your house, with your family.

Now, you didn't invite this person in, they just came on in and made themselves at home, saying "Hey homies, (or whatever) you got room, and you got food, so I'm here, and I'm staying' whether you like it or not". So, you let them. The next day, the guys' sister, and girlfriend, and aunt and 3 brothers, father, 6 uncles, and 4 pregnant sisters come in to your house, again without knocking and without your permission. Their presence is starting to get really annoying, and the whole setup is making you uncomfortable. It's inconvenient, they're overcrowding your house, they're actually trashing your house, they've put 4 cars from the local junkyard in your front lawn, one of them has painted your house orange and green because THEY like it that way, in the mean time destroying your property values.

Cont. below:

[usacitizen-2009]

I thought there was crime againt hate crime why do so many hate hispanics and the hispanics that are american citizens, read proverbs 8:13

[usacitizen-2009]

Yes, I'm a USA Ciitizen if you just read proverbs 8:13 read it til you understand the meaning and just like the rest here in USA so how am I different because I'm hispanic my parents where born here in this country to and I'm sure all came everyone's ancestors came from somewhere beyond USA. I have notice more since this BS with Immigration that I can not find a job now I being labled as an alien from Mexico as always. I a USA citizen hispanic have always been discriminated against in this counrty no matter what Black and white have more preivilages then USA hispanics as I see it's always been that way so sad. I guess there some much toots of evil in this country and just rememeber Proverbs 8:13 if any one beleives in God they would not discriminate but in this country I see in my own country no one is a real believer well not many if most of them discriminate against USA citizen that are hispanic and the rest that are that here that are not citizens yet. I see there is a war in our own counrty against USA citizen against Hispanic citizens were all getting labled now for ignorance or as it says in Proverb 8:13 arrogancy, hate one or the other is the root of evil, for those christ who walk in chuch how can they show there faces in a church and pretend to walk in faith.

[usacitizen-2009]

Yes, I'm a USA Ciitizen and just like the rest here in USA so how am I different because I'm hispanic my parents where born here in this country to and I'm sure all came everyone's ancestors came from somewhere beyond USA. I have notice more since this BS with Immigration that I can not find a job now I being labled as an alien from Mexico as always. I a USA citizen hispanic have always been discriminated against in this counrty no matter what Black and white have more preivilages then USA hispanics as I see it's always been that way so sad. I guess there some much toots of evil in this country and just rememeber Proverbs 8:13 if any one beleives in God they would not discriminate but in this country I see in my own country no one is a real believer well not many if most of them discriminate against USA citizen that are hispanic and the rest that are that here that are not citizens yet. I see there is a war in our own counrty against USA citizen against Hispanic citizens were all getting labled now for ignorance or as it says in Proverb 8:13 arrogancy, hate one or the other is the root of evil, for those christ who walk in chuch how can they show there faces in a church and pretend to walk in faith. of MIch

[usacitizen-2009]

Yes, I'm a USA Ciitizen and just like the rest here in USA so how am I different because I'm hispanic my parents where born here in this country to and I'm sure all came everyone's ancestors came from somewhere beyond USA. I have notice more since this BS with Immigration that I can not find a job now I being labled as an alien from Mexico as always. I a USA citizen hispanic have always been discriminated against in this counrty no matter what Black and white have more preivilages then USA hispanics as I see it's always been that way so sad. I guess there some much toots of evil in this country and just rememeber Proverbs 8:13 if any one beleives in God they would not discriminate but in this country I see in my own country no one is a real believer well not many if most of them discriminate against USA citizen that are hispanic and the rest that are that here that are not citizens yet. I see there is a war in our own counrty against USA citizen against Hispanic citizens were all getting labled now for ignorance or as it says in Proverb 8:13 arrogancy, hate one or the other is the root of evil, for those christ who walk in chuch how can they show there faces in a church and pretend to walk in faith.