The Associated Press

ARRIAGA, Mexico - For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. starts here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call The Beast.
These days many don't get far.
Central Americans without documents face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks.
The result: The number of non-Mexican illegal immigrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005.
About 68,000 non-Mexican immigrants - mostly Central Americans - were detained last year, compared to 165,000 in 2005.
Non-Mexicans make up about 10 percent of all immigrants caught by Border Patrol agents.
Mexico itself is also seeing fewer illegal immigrants; 120,000 were arrested last year, a 50 percent drop from 2005.
Since President Felipe Calderón took office two years ago, Mexico has added more soldiers and federal police on its border with Guatemala and more immigration and military checkpoints throughout the south.
Many Mexicans are sympathetic to illegal immigrants from Central America, but the issue still causes tensions that echo the U.S. debate.
Isaac Castillo, owner of the Hotel La Posada in Arriaga, argues that Central American immigrants often end up working in Mexico, where wages can be double the few dollars a day they might earn at home.
"The problem isn't just in the U.S., but in Mexico, because a lot of Central Americans want to stay here and compete with Mexicans for jobs," he said.
The crackdown on Central American immigrants has left them searching for new routes. Some of them pay smugglers $7,000 to go by boat into southern Mexico, then hide in tractor-trailers heading north.
The boats and trucks try to evade highway checkpoints set up every few miles alongside most of Mexico's southern roadways.
Some immigrants have been crushed to death when false floors collapsed under the weight of freight, and 22 Salvadoran immigrants drowned in an October shipwreck off the coast of southern Oaxaca state.
For those Central American immigrants unable or unwilling to risk the sea, a cargo train - The Beast - remains the only option for the 2,000-mile trip to the U.S.
As they head north, they pay off thieves and bribe immigration officials, police and railroad employees.
Juan Gabriel Ramos, a Guatemalan 17-year-old trying to join his mother in California, said he bribed a Mexican federal police officer and an immigration agent before even making it to Arriaga.