Illegal immigrants increasingly go north

By Robin Emmott

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico (Reuters) - Illegal immigrants from Latin America are heading deeper into the United States to find work and avoid deportation as crackdowns in border states like Texas and Arizona make life more difficult for them.

The U.S. Border Patrol has ramped up surveillance along the porous Mexican border aided by National Guard troops since 2005, while police and state legislatures have increasingly targeted illegal immigrants in some border states.

"Texas is crawling with Border Patrol agents and the locals are so tuned in that if they see you walking down the street, they phone the Border Patrol, who come and deport you," said Joe Reyes, 45, who lived for seven years in Houston before being deported in November.

"I'm heading for North Carolina if I can get back across," he said at the Catholic-run migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas.

Washington hired thousands more Border Patrol agents last year to help deport immigrants who entered illegally or outstayed their visas, carry out workplace raids, jail illegals and push police to enforce immigration laws.

While workplace raids are common in central and northern states, Arizona and Texas are now arguably the toughest places for undocumented immigrants.

In Arizona, once a popular state for fresh arrivals due to its desert border with Mexico, companies are laying off undocumented workers after a new law came into effect on January 1 punishing companies who hire illegal immigrants.

Family networks in border states are still a strong pull for new immigrants and some are willing to risk living in Texas, which has a Hispanic heritage and big Hispanic population.