An immigrant walks with a bottle of water during his trip to the border city of Nuevo Laredo
An immigrant walks with a bottle of water during his trip to the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, May 5, 2006. Every day trains in Mexico are used by immigrants to cross the country, heading for the border between Mexico and United States. The U.S. Border Patrol said on Wednesday it had arrested 724,613 undocumented migrants crossing the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border from Mexico since October 1 last year, a rise of 6 percent from the same period a year earlier. The increase comes as U.S. lawmakers debate a proposal by President George W. Bush offering millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, and as Hispanic activists staged protests and a work stoppage in cities nationwide. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Also see image: GF1DVGQJUIAA