A surge in the number of Brazilians arrested at the U.S.-Mexico frontier has
highlighted a wave of illegal immigration.

BY HENRY CHU
Los Angeles Times Service

GOVERNADOR VALADARES, Brazil - They were only modest dreams that led Wendel
Pereira to leave his family and country just before Christmas. He promised to
return in three years with enough money to marry his fiancee, buy a house and
maybe a car.

His first ride on an airplane, to Mexico, went fine. Wading across the cold
Rio Grande into Texas was manageable. Two weeks after slipping into the United
States, however, the 23-year-old was dead of an apparent asthma attack, his
body destined for a pauper's burial.

His tragic fate made news here in his hometown. But it has not stanched the
rising tide of Brazilians trying to enter the United States illegally, an
upsurge over the last year whose scope has caught authorities by surprise.

Driven by nagging unemployment, increasingly sophisticated smuggling rings and
even, some say, a wildly popular soap opera about Brazilian immigrants in the
United States, the number of people from Latin America's most populous nation
attempting to sneak into the land of opportunity up north appears to be
hitting levels not seen in years -- if ever, officials in both countries say.

They cite the steep climb in the number of Brazilians arrested at the U.S.-
Mexico frontier, the main point of entry.

For the year ending last Sept. 30, U.S. authorities detained about 8,900
Brazilians trying to cross the border, mostly into Arizona or Texas. Since
then, with three months remaining before the end of the current fiscal year,
that figure has nearly tripled, to more than 25,600 detentions.

BEHIND HONDURAS

Excluding Mexico, by far the largest source of illegal immigrants, Brazil
ranks behind only Honduras in the number of nationals apprehended at the
southwestern border, having surpassed El Salvador on the strength of the
recent wave, according to U.S. government statistics. If present trends
continue, this nation with a population of about 180 million, many mired in
poverty, could eventually eclipse Honduras.

''The numbers are staggering,'' said a U.S. official who works on the issue,
speaking on condition of anonymity. The numbers suggest that there is more
going on than stepped-up enforcement, he said. And, of course, they represent
only the Brazilians who get caught.

YEARLY INCREASE

Authorities are hard-pressed to identify an overriding reason for the increase
from a year ago. But they note that illegal immigration from Brazil had been
on the upswing in previous years and that economic prospects remain bleak for
many in this country. The Brazilian National Congress has established a
committee to investigate the issue.

In part, the United States blames the influx on Mexico, which stopped
requiring visas of visiting Brazilians in 2000. That has facilitated a rush
north, as planeloads of Brazilians touch down in Mexico City and many
passengers, passports in hand, sail through customs and head for the border.

Washington has pressured the Mexican government to scrap its visa-free policy,
which was expected to happen in May. But a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy
in Brasilia said there was no confirmed date for visa applications to resume.

The would-be immigrants hail from throughout this vast country, including the
wealthier south. But the nerve center of the human traffic remains here in the
eastern state of Minas Gerais.

Americans flocked to this area after World War II to help build a railway and
to exploit the region's minerals, metals and gemstones.

Historians say many of these Americans brought Brazilian wives and maids home,
which triggered a northward stream of immigrants.

''There was no intention to stimulate immigration, but the development of
support networks for the pioneers who left in the '60s and, on a greater
scale, in the '80s led to this,'' said sociologist Ana Cristina Braga Martes.

Signs of American influence abound in Governador Valadares, a city so well
known for exporting sons and daughters and benefiting from money sent home
that a resident once called the United States ''the cradle of Valadares
civilization.'' Hipsters groove at a nightclub called America, and motorists
often carry U.S. driver's licenses.