Najla da Cunha Salem, a 43-year old English teacher from Volta Redonda - RJ, Brazil disappeared while trying to enter the USA illegally across the US/Mexico border.
She had previously lived illegally in the USA for six years and was deported back to Brazil in 2005. In 2011 she again tried to enter the country without authorization, but was detained at the airport and returned to Brazil.
She reportedly paid "coyotes" USD $20,000, but was being threatened if she didn't pay an additional $8,000.
The family states that she was only trying to have a better standard of living for herself and her only child, a son born in the USA and thus an American citizen. Well, sorry but that's not gonna fly with me folks, I'm sorry. If she had the ability to pay $28,000 (the equivalent of R$80 thousand) to get into the USA illegally, she obviously wasn't too badly off here in Brazil. Sorry, no sympathy here for anybody who flagrantly breaks immigration laws. With all the stories about people vanishing while trying to cross over from Mexico into the USA that abound in the news, it would be impossible to NOT know that this was a real risk she was running. When breaking the law, you get what you get... can't cry about it afterwards.
Cheers,
James Expat-blog Experts Team
Brazilian woman disappears while trying to enter the USA illegally.
Tragic. I'm a bit more sympathetic than you are, James. 
However, I agree with you in this respect: she broke the law, and she had to have known about the risks involved. And yes, if she had R$80,000 to pay to the coyotes, I suppose she wasn't exactly poor. But maybe her boyfriend in the U.S. sent her the $? Was she living apart from her American son and desperate to get back to him? I don't know the whole story. Either way, it's sad. 
As far as I know her son lives here in Brazil with his grandparents. And with R$80 thousand in some places you can still buy a decent house cash, so if she had done that even on what an English teacher makes she could have lived quite well, especially if one teaches private students. Just a cop out what the family says.
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