Thousands of Nicaraguan immigrants are expected to travel back north this week to observe Semana Santa and Easter with their families, but many of them will not cross Penas Blancas. “Mojados” as they are known in their native land, will try to evade border checkpoints for fear of running into civil law enforcement authorities in Costa Rica, or military security forces in Nicaragua.

According to an article published in daily newspaper La Prensa in Nicaragua, many mojados make the trip south to Costa Rica and back to Nicaragua as illegal immigrants due to economic hardship. They may meet the immigration requirements to get their legal documents and status, but the red tape and costs involved pushes them into the risky practice of border jumping.

The travails that mojados must face going back and forth between Nicaragua and Costa Rica are nothing like a comfortable visa run on TicaBus or TransNica. Criminals know that mojados carry cash on them to pay landowners to allow them to cross their farm on both sides of the border. In Nicaragua, mojados pay 10 cordobas (less than $0.50) to cross border fincas. Once they are in Costa Rica, the fee goes up to 1,000 colones (about $2), even though those fincas are often owned by ethnic Nicaraguans.

Assailants who prey on the mojados in Nicaragua are familiar with the network of trails and crossing points. They know that aside from the crossing fees payable to the coyote landowners, mojados carry additional cash for bus travel, meals and lodging in Costa Rica -all of which are extremely expensive in comparison to Nicaragua. For most of them the expense and risk are worth it, as indicated by the immigrant profiles provided by La Prensa:

Martha from northern Nicaragua

She was pregnant when she arrived in Costa Rica for the first time. She found a good job and health coverage with La Caja. She has a work permit that allows her to travel back and forth, but her Tico son does not have a passport. “You should see how difficult and expensive it is to get passport for my son, so I just jump the border with him -although it’s a bit expensive as well.”

Delfina from Rivas

For this micro-entrepreneur, who buys wholesale clothing and footwear in Masaya and sells it retail in Costa Rica, illegal border crossings are just part of doing business. She explained to La Prensa that she avoids exit fees in Nicaragua and import taxes in Costa Rica. For Delfina, an illegal crossing costs about $85, including coyote fees, shakedowns and bus fare.

The Nicaraguan Army has identified about 38 “blind crossing points” used by mojados.

According to La Prensa, there are about half a million Nicaraguan-born immigrants in Costa Rica, and an estimated 25 percent are undocumented. Some were even born in Costa Rica or came from Nicaragua as babies, but their parents never followed up with civil authorities to formalize their status. These ethnic Nicaraguans are entitled to many rights and protections in Costa Rica, but they are in the dark with regard to how our civil institutions and processes work.

The Nicaraguan parents of young children born in Costa Rica complain about the intricate process of getting passports and other immigration matters. A previous article published by The Costa Rica Star mentioned a research study by University of Costa Rica (UCR) sociologists who are calling on the government to review the complexity and rigidity of the immigration process, as well as the elevated fees. According to the UCR researchers, the current immigration laws and regulations actually stimulate illegal immigration.