With unemployment in the United States at an all-time high and with American icon Chevrolet on the verge of bankruptcy, it’s no wonder apprehensions of undocumented migrants have significantly decreased.

Border Patrol agents keep fighting rocks with bullets and perennial burglary victim Susie Morales went and installed a state-of-the-art alarm system at her place near the drained Peña Blanca Lake. It’s just not as much fun as it used to be.

Not only that but the once pristine desert areas between Nogales and Phoenix where these folks trek are now filthy with trash and erosion.

Then, the other day I went to the big box store and guess what? They did not have menudo fixings. If that doesn’t say, “Mexicans go home,” I don’t know what does.

We should remember also that its election time in Mexico. I hear presidential hopeful Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is handing out gift baskets to those who stay and vote for his party, Convergencia.

Of course another reason apprehensions are down may be because the migrants and their coyotes are getting smarter at evading BP. Put simply, they are not being caught. A friend of mine in Cuernavaca says it’s a slow, methodical retaking of the lands lost in the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo and Gadsden Purchase.

Its no longer “Yankees go home.” Its “Yankees, we’re home!”

In any case, the American Dream has become a mirage in the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. (No, that’s not an oversized Uncle Sam with an outstretched hand to greet you; it’s a giant cactus) It’s that way not only for migrants, but for us “locals,” too.

Sometimes I even think of absconding down Mexico way.

But who am I kidding? Like Susie Morales and many others, I’m not going anywhere. Nogales is merely a crossing point, and most are just passing through. I’m happy I don’t have to be looking over my shoulder for BP agents.

Nogales is an entirely different planet not well understood by anyone north of Rio Rico. Strangely, I kind of like it like that.

(Write us at 268 W. View Point Dr., Nogales, Ariz., 85621 or manuel.coppola@nogalesinternational.com.)