Costa Rica is worried about the influx of illegal immigrants from Nicaragua

Marla Dickerson:

Crime and joblessness have long been part of the tough Leon XIII neighborhood of Costa Rica's capital, where residents such as Alexandra Martinez do their best to steer clear of broken pavement and street-corner drug dealers.

But the 37-year-old homemaker says that things have gotten worse in the last few years. Her explanation: "There are a lot of Nicas here," she says, using a slang term for Nicaraguans.

Martinez says these immigrants, many of them undocumented, are hard-drinking, aggressive people who compete with Costa Ricans for jobs and drain the nation's public services. She approves of a recent federal law aimed at stemming the influx.

"It's the biggest problem we face in the country," she says.

Many Costa Ricans are more temperate than Martinez when discussing immigration. But the continued southward flow of impoverished Nicaraguans into Central America's most prosperous nation has inflamed tensions between these neighbors.

The 192-mile border is virtually unguarded, allowing Nicaraguans to slip easily into Costa Rica, where the per capita gross national income of $4,700 is six times higher than in Nicaragua.

Some analysts say Costa Rica, known as the Switzerland of Central America, has benefited from the steady supply of cheap labor to harvest the nation's bananas and coffee, mop its floors and tend to its children.

Costa Rica boasts the region's highest standard of living and provides universal healthcare. The nation has invested heavily in education and boasts a thriving technology industry.

But nagging poverty, sluggish economic growth and fraying of the social safety net have many Costa Ricans fearful that uncontrolled immigration is undermining their hard-won gains.

An estimated 180,000 undocumented Nicaraguans account for about 4.5% of the nation's population, a slightly higher percentage than the overall proportion in the United States, where illegal immigrants make up 4% of the population.

Including legal residents, experts calculate that as much as 15% of Costa Rica's population is foreign-born. Most of them are Nicaraguans, who have been arriving in large numbers for 25 years because of war, natural disasters and social instability in their country.

"Even the United States would have problems" absorbing so many newcomers, says economist Eduardo Lizano, president of the San Jose think tank Academy of Central America.

Approved late last year and slated to be implemented in August, Costa Rica's new immigration law is aimed largely at those who profit from undocumented workers. It makes human trafficking a crime punishable by as much as six years in prison. And it significantly increases fines on Costa Ricans caught employing illegal immigrants — to $3,600 per violation, up from as little as $10, says Johnny Marin, Costa Rica's immigration director.

Marin says the nation of slightly more than 4 million people lacks the resources to guard its border or to engage in mass deportations. Costa Rica deported just 775 people last year.

"Control of the migratory phenomenon lies in the employer sector," Marin says. "Because if they don't hire illegals, the people won't come, they won't migrate."

The Costa Ricans have the right idea in going after those who employ the illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, here in the United States, the Bush administration represents those who hire illegals.