The Deported - Some 'Double-Undocumented'

"Deportees who do have a Mexican ID often have it confiscated by American immigration officials or the local jails where they are first detained. Though detainees are supposed to get their belongings back when they’re deported, they are transferred quickly from the jails to immigration detention centers hundreds or thousands of miles away. Their IDs stay behind, along with the rest of their possessions.  In an average month, No More Deaths volunteers recover from jails and detention centers about $1,000 in cash (dollars and pesos), 17 bags of belongings, and 16 pieces of ID. David Hill, a former linguistics Ph.D. student who now coordinates the property recovery project, tells me, "Many feel like they need to give me a reason why they need their property back, beyond it just being right and just. The first thing they say if they’re in Mexico is that they need their ID. They won’t mention their phones or things of monetary value, they’ll mention their ID because they can’t work without it."  These people are double-undocumented. They have worked and lived without papers north of the border, so they know how important that little card can be. And some don’t have any way to get papers once they’re back in Mexico." - Seth Freed Wessler, June 4, 2012.