Show Extending a helping hand j 1 Hector Tobar Los Angeles Times Jose Luis Gutierrez is the mayor of the biggest city in Mexico youve you've never heard of a sprawling suburb of Mexico City built by people on the move And the charismatic Gutierrez has done something almost as unheard of He has declared this c city ty of as many of 3 million people a sanctuary for the illegal Central American immigrants who pass through here each day He has ordered his police and city officials not to arrest extort or otherwise harass the migrants Hes He's also ordered them not to cooperate with the Mexican immigration agents Let them go and guard the borders he said For Ecatepec migration is not a c criminal act Its It's a universal right the right to seek work and the right to travel freely from one place to another Ecatepec is the place where Hondurans Guatemalans Salvadorans and others begin the thelong thelong thelong long final stage of their mile 1200 journey across Mexico northward to the US U.S. border aboard a freight train known as the beast Thousands of undocumented immigrants pass through here every year but you wont won't hear many Ecatepec residents call them illegal A lot of people help them said Guadalupe Ambriz a 3 year old resident of Xalostoc an imp impoverished Ecatepec neighborhood divided by bythe bythe bythe the rail line Ambriz like many residents along the tracks lives in an old boxcar that's been converted into a home They might let let- them take a bath or give them some food or some old clothes Ambriz added Given Ecatepec's history the mayors mayor's decision was not a controversial one This city is itself made up of migrants people who have resettled here from other impoverished corners of Mexico including the nearby states of Oaxaca Hidalgo and Puebla And every year Ecatepec sends many of its sons and daughters northward There are large communities of Ecatepec natives in California Texas and other US U.S. states For us the bravest people of Ecatepec are arc a r. y i m 4 a I I I I J Photo for the Los Angeles Times by Sarah Meghan Lee LeeThe The rail lines that run through Ecatepec are mostly unused since the last working i rail line in Mexico's southern border states shut down in July the ones who go take the risk of going to the north with all the abuse and the hatred that goes on there Gutierrez said Those people are heroes for us Gutierrez 42 is a longtime activist with the leftist Democratic Revolution Party which won the 2006 municipal elections here Immigration is a deeply personal issue for him Gutierrez said One of his cousins has lived in the Los Angeles area without papers for 10 years We were raised together by our grandmother Gutierrez said Because his cousin is in the United States illegally he hasn't be able to return to Mexico and the two men haven't seen each other in a decade All those people who have gone to the north are our blood the mayor said Central American immigrants have been passing through Ecatepec for more than a decade Their journey is fraught with peril Untold numbers of immigrants have died along the way or suffered mutilating injuries when falling off the train All along the route from the Guatemalan border to the Rio Grande police and immigration officials routinely seek bribes or simply rob them For years our police protected the extortionists Gutierrez said of Ecatepec's officers The immigrants didn't complain but the residents did It just added to a climate of excessive violence in a neighborhood that was already dangerous Recent months have brought changes to the migrant trail The last I me ine southern border states shut shutdown shutdown shutdown down in July leading many migrants to walk days past immigration checkpoints or to hire smugglers to get them across Mexico The trains running viI tt ia f i 1 through central and 3 Mexico to the US U.S. bord border are still working but th the rail lines that run through 1 t Ecatepec are now mostly mostly- 1 quiet The people who liy live along the tracks say they see only a handful of illegal l migrants pass each day The US U.S. border is harder harde 1 than ever to get across a a- a fact well known to man many j Ecatepec residents Its a hard journey journey- said Armando Pena i a year old bicycle taxi tax taxi operator in the Xalostoc 1 neighborhood Last year 1 he paid a smuggler the the the-l j equivalent of 1000 to g get get him to Los Angeles But if J you want to get ahead it its it's j i ithe the only way 1 Pena said the smuggler smuggle got him across the border bord border 1 t i 1 at San Ysidro in a box attached to the underside 1 of a car I thought I w was going to suffocate he recalled Recalling his own own own hard hardships hips he helps t the the- 1 passing migrants any way ways i 4 3 he can he says 11 IH |