Busing Students From Mexico to U.S. Schools

I recently traveled from Mexico City to the United States on the Intra-city bus, making stops along the way in cities such as Chihuahua. I spent a few days in a tiny border town, south of Deming, New Mexico, called Paloma where rooms were inexpensive and shopping was excellent. On the third day, I crossed into the U.S. and at 7:00 am waited at the bus stop near the U.S. Border Control Station to take the shuttle to Deming.

Believe it or not, Latino school children were pouring through the small U.S. immigration office from Mexico and loading onto American yellow/orange school buses. I asked a motherly fiftyish woman who was supervising the students, “Where are all these children going?”

“They’re traveling to schools in Deming, USA about an hour’s drive north of here. They’re U.S. citizens who are living in Mexico because their parents have been deported, because the cost of living is less, or their parents work and their extended framilies are there. The busing occurs all along the U.S-Mexican border from Tijuana to El Paseo.

“The high school students get here earlier. These are the elementary and middle school kids. We have 500 students whom we bus everyday.”

This last statement I didn’t believe because I only saw 30 to 40 pupils and Paloma is a very small town. I asked my self, Where would all the families and children live?”

Soon however, a bus arrived and the first 50 children boarded it. Then more buses began arriving and lining up along the road. I watched the children fill up nine buses while I waited the hour for my shuttle to arrive. If one bus holds 48 to 65 student, nine buses would hold 432 to 585 students, and that’s not counting the high school students who already left.

The lady I had spoken to knew several of the young ones by name. She took a seven year old boy onto her lap and asked him, “Are you feeling any better today, Jose?”

“Yes mam, my stomach ache was gone when I woke up this morning.”

* * *

I enjoyed my stay in Mexico City. The city center is like a small town where everyone knows everyone else. The people are friendly and many of them speak English.

In fact I enjoyed traveling through Mexico. I visited Puebla and several other towns around the capital. At a time when many Americans consider Mexico a “poor cousin” and its people the enemy, I found it refreshing. Most of the towns have a newly developed commercial section with malls, hotels, and modern chain stores, most of them franchises of U.S. companies. These areas are as modern or more so than many Mid-Western and East Coast cities. Of course at the center of nearly every city is an old puebla. The best part about Mexico is the people. They love Americans. They’ll go out of their way to talk with you and help you find what you need. And the country is becoming safer and safer. Why not be different and take a low-cost, fun-in-the-sun, vacation to Mexico