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Dying to Cross: The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History

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In May 2003, dozens of illegal immigrants who had recently crossed the Mexican border into the United States got into the nearly airtight back of a tractor trailer with the hope of reaching Houston. Many had second thoughts, but their desperation and their dependence on the "coyotes" who arranged for their transportation won out. Within minutes, the temperature inside the locked trailer soared, and the passengers inside knew they were in trouble. By the time the driver finally opened the doors, seventeen people, including a five-year old boy, were already dead and another two were dying. The survivors tumbled out into the hot Texas night. By the time the authorities had sorted things out, it was clear that at least seventy-four people had been crammed in the trailer without air conditioning or water.

In this slender book about the tragedy, author Jorge Ramos reconstructs the events that led up to that night, as well as some of the legal proceedings that followed, including the guilty pleas of several of the coyotes. He interviews four of the surviving immigrants - Alberto, Enrique, Israel, and Jose - as well as the Mexican consul who handled the aftermath. He rounds out his account by including statements from police officers, lawyers, friends, and family members. Interestingly, Ramos makes an excellent case of how easy it is for immigrant to gain entry into the United States (the border crossings of all those interviewed were uneventful); the real peril for immigrants occurs within U.S. borders as they try to make their way toward cities and, ultimately, jobs.

In his preface, Ramos states "my sole intention is to tell the story from the point of view of those who actually lived through it. Nothing more." This decision is ultimately the weakness of this book since the words of the four surviving immigrants are not insightful enough on their own. Ramos should have chosen to be a stronger voice for the victims by describing in more vivid detail the lives they left and the implications of both their flight and their survival. If, as he states in the preface, he wanted to make it clear that "severely flawed U.S. immigration policies . . . as well as dire economic and social conditions in Mexico" were in part to blame, then he should have drawn a more complete picture of the specifics to give this story context. He can't have it both ways - limiting his story to the perspective of the victims and then making a compelling socio-political statement. I found myself wishing that he had gone deeper, either into the characters and lives of the victims, or into the conditions that made them so desperate to find work in the United States.

When Ramos takes the time to fully describe a moment, the narrative is powerful. He does an excellent job portraying the conditions, emotions, and physical decline of those trapped inside the truck, bringing a reality to what happened that the news reports at the time did not. I find it odd that he points out several times that all the women survived and yet he seems not to have interviewed any of the female survivors in depth. He asks the mother of the dead boy, who was not on the truck, why she thought all the women survived, as though somehow her words held weight, making her remarks seem more like filler than revelation. The mother, however, is the most compelling presence in the book; her description of her son's funeral is heartbreaking.

Although uneven, this book deserves to be read for its account of illegal immigration and the unscrupulous people who prey on desperation. It gives a human face to people who become largely invisible once integrated into the population. Also available in a Spanish edition, this book should be widely read by those who care about the issues, even if the issues themselves are not well discussed.

On May 14, 2003, nineteen people died while en route from a small Mexico/Texas border town to Houston, Texas, in what at the time was called the "greatest illegal immigrant tragedy in modern history." An estimated 73-84+ undocumented immigrants - most of them Mexican citizens, with a small minority hailing from other Latin American countries, such as Honduras - were packed into the back of a hermetically-sealed, locked-from-the-outside tractor trailer, without water, air conditioning or fresh air. Over the course of four hours, 17 people asphyxiated to death before the truck's driver finally pulled over to rest. When Tyrone Williams - who was contracted by coyotes to transport the immigrants to Houston, on what should have been the final leg of their trip - opened the trailer and discovered the dead, he fled from the scene. Most (if not all) of the immigrants were apprehended by local police and ICE, and were given temporary work visas so that they could remain in the U.S. and testify against their human traffickers. Two more immigrants died at the hospital, bringing the death toll to 19. The coyotes were charged with a variety of offenses, including murder.

Jorge Ramos, a native of Mexico and anchor for Noticiero Univision, weaves survivor, witness and official accounts of the tragedy together in DYING TO CROSS. The bulk of the story is told from the perspective of the half dozen or so survivors who were willing to speak to Ramos. The account of the perilous four hours spent in the trailer, for example, are primarily survivor accounts, with liberal use of direct quotations interspersed with medical explanations of what the victims' bodies and minds would have been going through, given the circumstances. Ramos also offers brief biographies of a few of the immigrants, as well as accounts of how they came to buy a spot on that fateful trailer. The book concludes with a description of the aftermath, however, as there was no real trial to speak of, this section of the report is almost anti-climactic. Ramos attempts to use this tragedy to illustrate failings in U.S. immigration policy as well as U.S./Mexican political relations, but his analysis seems a little scattered and superficial. (It's not that I necessarily disagree with his conclusions, rather, I don't feel as though he made a very comprehensive argument in favor of a more open and humane border policy.)

Given the book's subject matter, DYING TO CROSS is surprisingly boring, and I can't really pinpoint why. It seems as though the survivors' accounts of the trailer ride should have been more nail-bitingly suspenseful - but, not so much. There was a lot of talk about prayer, Satan worship, God-begging, etc., which got really tiresome, really fast. Case in point: all of the women passengers survived; one of the surviving men attributed this to the fact that the women started praying to God immediately, while the men "wasted" their energy on "frivolous" activities - like banging on and rocking the trailer, in a failed attempt to get the driver's attention. Um, yeah. Trying to stop the truck - what *were* they thinking!? Plus, the women's 100% survival rate couldn't possibly be due to the fact that women's bodies tend to retain more water than men's, for a variety of reasons including menstruation and oral contraception, right? (Ramos loses major cred for failing to counter these superstitious claims with scientific explanations.) Naturally, the survivors all thanked God for sparing them, proclaiming it a "miracle," etc., which begs the question of why God favored them and not the nineteen who died - one of which included a 5-year-old boy. But hey, maybe that's just the cantankerous ole atheist in me.

Alcario Torrez III
Mr.Slater
English 9
10 Dec 10

Dying to Cross

Dying to cross is an excellent book that highlights a critical issue in America today. It also gives a personal perspective to the issue of illegal immigration. Coming from the writing of Jorge Ramos, and made in New York 2005. I highly recommend that anyone in 7th grade or older, understanding the problem or not should read this book.

The plot of Dying to Cross is very well placed, especially while the immigrants were inside the trailer, however, the author would benefit by describing more how the different immigrants were feeling than thoroughly describing the little facts. In chapter 5 Jorge Ramos spent the whole chapter (12 pages) just about one child. The description in the first 5 pages were heart felt and made me understand how bad the coyotes were, if they could do that to a child and not feel destruction in the heart. Through out the whole story I felt the emotional impact that the author is trying to input on the reader.

The characterization of Marco Antonio was great but the author should not have spent a whole chapter describing Marco Antonio. The excessive description of Marco Antonio slowed the chapter down the whole chapter. Instead of spending the whole chapter describing Marco, he could have described some of the other bad situations. Because he only described the others in the trailer on one or two pages, Ramos could have spent 5 or more pages describing the others. The conflict of this book is, there is 80 or more illegal immigrants trying to get in to the U.S.A. but hit a road block when the coyote (the driver) forgets to turn on the air conditioner in the trailer.

The Theme of Dying to cross is that both legal and illegal Immigrants face tough obstacles to cross the border and there fore both the US and Mexico need to address this problem to save lives of people looking to cross the border. Jorge Ramos states that Mexico understands that there are Mexican citizens crossing the border illegally but continue to avoid the problem. Through out the book Ramos describes why Mexico chooses to avoid it, which is another reasons to read this book (world issues).

The historic tragedy is horrible but is worth reading and will inform you of the hectic problem. This book is an informative, breath taking book because it gets the point across and shows the reader that there are terrible things happening around the world. And that there is no exception for the U.S. Ramos set a steady pace for this book. Anyone who is in 7th grade should definitely read this book. 

Work Cited
Ramos, Jorge. Dying to Cross: Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History. New York:

Harper Collins, 2005.

Efron Corpus
English 9
Mr. Slater
12/10/10

Dying to cross is an excellent book that highlights a critical in America today and gives a personal perspective to the issue of illegal immigration. I highly recommend that anyone read this book

The plot of dying to cross is overall very well paced, especially the chapter describing the immigrant's ordeal in the tractor trailer, however,, the subsequent chapters slow down a little bit and would benefit from more editing or strong commentary on the issues of illegal immigration. the immigrants wanted to come to the us because they were having problems at there state how they couldn't get money and work.

The characterization of Marco Antonio is excellent in the story and ideas a lot to add to the strength of the dying to cross, but the story would benefit from more detailed description of the other immigrants involved in the tragedy of a three year old that died on there way to the United States.

Themes there are a couple very relevant themes in dying to cross that make the story worth reading. namely, that almost all Americans, legal or not, have had to over come great obstacles to get into this country, and that the issue of illegal immigration runs extremely deep in this country and need to be addressed in order to save lives.

Overall Dying to Cross is an excellent story that everyone should read. It gives a personal account to a largely overlooked problem in the United States.



Work Cited
Ramos, Jorge. Dying to Cross the Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History. New York Harper Collins, 2005.

The tragic events that occurred because of unscrupulous money-hungry coyotes and their desperate-to-get-to-America prey resulted in, as part of the title indicates, The Worst Immigrant Tragedy in American History. Unfortunately, in this politically charged post 911 world, where everything seems to be blamed on "illegal aliens," and the fears of the populace is dumped on the immigration issue, the faces of this tragedy become as meaningless as those idiotic signs on the Californaia highways that warn drivers of possible pedestrians crossing the freeways by displaying a shadowy family hand in hand running. That said, this book is not about politics, whether you believe we should build a new Wall of China along our borders, complete with machine gun turrets or you think everyone should get a free pass to the USA, it is about how these people died and the circumstances that led to their desperate measures. If you are unfamiliar with the events I suggest you read D.L. Wesselmann's excellent review here at Amazon for an unbiased perspective. I would only like to add that the book is very easy to read(I read it in a rare one sitting), extremely compelling, emotional(whatever side of the "fence" you're on)and thought provoking. It is a sad story that needed to be told; hopefully everyone can learn from this tragedy. The criminal events are here for your examination, put away your bias and see what it is like for people dying to come to America. I would recommend anyone to read this book that has a heart; the mind will follow.

Most books written by reporters are pretty horrible affairs and this one is no exception. It was very poorly written and not very in-depth. Some of the more annoying aspects of the writing included the author's constant explanation of the meaning of ICE. Rather than identifying the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement once early in the book and referring to it by its acronym throughout the rest of the book, the author annoyingly kept explaning what it meant, as if the latter part of the book were disconnected from what went before. Also, the author's constant reference to the truck or the trailer in which the immigrants died as "that truck" and "that trailer" was amatuerish and annoying. Finally, on pages 148 and 149, the author leaves the role of reporter and engages in sloppy, inconsistent editorializing. On page 148 he tries to affix blame for the tragedy on the U.S. government for its "lackluster" immigration enforcement and on the very next page seeks to blame the U.S. government for the tragedy because it is enforcing its immigration laws too vigorously. At best, this book is a mediocrity and that is unfortunate since this was such a tragic incident and immigration is such an important issue. Unfortunately, this author was not up to the enormity of the task.

I'm a big fan of Jorge Ramos' work. It would be very easy for him to sit behind his anchor desk at Univision and collect his substantial salary as the presenter at the country's fastest-growing national news program. But in Ramos' books, he shows a real reporter's ethos and drive to get out and get the story. This is a guy who can talk to heads of state one day, undocumented immigrants the next, and be equally at home with each group. The result here in 'Dying to Cross' is a compelling 'story behind the story' of "the worst immigrant tragedy in American history."

Ramos also provides some forthright analysis. In addition to documenting the tragedy itself, he notably faults "the failed North American migrant policies, the permanent crisis of the Mexican economy and the incapacity of the Mexican and US governments to achieve a migratory agreement."

I read the Spanish language version of the book (released as 'Morir en el Intento'). For those of us learning Spanish, Ramos' clean and direct prose and presentation is a beautiful thing. I highly recommend giving it a try.

This is a great book for well-to-do white liberals who enjoy stories about the tribulations of illegal immigrants from Mexico. It gives them a chance to tout their moral superiority to the working Americans who actually have to live among this flood of unrestrained immigration.



Not only does Univision increase it's profits by more immigrants, well-to-do white liberals who are most likely to buy this book get to enjoy the services of subservient economic refugees mowing their lawns, cleaning their condos and babysitting their children at bargain wages subsidized by food stamps, rent subsidies free medical care, courtesy of the taxpayer. Not to mention that immigrants are counted in the apportionment of legislative and congressional representatives, increasing the power of the corrupt Democrat Political machine, the likes of which San Francisco with it's former "Da Mayor" Willie Brown and Millionaire Playboy current mayor Newsome.



Every illegal immigrant hopping the border is a US taxpayer subsidy for a dysfunctional Mexican establishment, eager to get rid of the people it doesn't need by forcing them North, as well as lining the pockets of media personalities like Jorge Ramos.



Rather then waste your time on a book whose only purpose is to push it's own special interest agenda, I'd recommend you read something about how this flood of illegals are united with outsourcing and globalization to destroy the economic security of working class Americans. Try Michelle Malkin's book, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Or Daniel Sheehy's Fighting Immigration Anarchy: American Patriots Battle to Save the Nation. Another great book is Peter Brimlow's book, Alien Nation: Common Sense About America's Immigration Disaster.