Frontera NorteSur August 2003

The PFP estimates that in 2001 smugglers moved approximately 15,000 non-Mexicans across Mexico toward the US. These migrants were primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. To help with their passage, the organizations used networks of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, taxis, bus lines and forgers, the PFP concluded. 

Central Americans that use human-trafficking organizations to enter the US can expect to pay between US$2,500 and US$5,000. According to the PFP, this price includes insurance: migrants that are detained by the Border Patrol get a second, no-cost chance to cross the border. 

When moving people from Central America to the US, the PFP states that organizations bring migrants into Mexico through Chiapas. From there they go to various points in the southeastern coastal state of Veracruz. Once in Veracruz, migrants are moved along four distinct paths. Some are brought across central Mexico and up the western coast, some are moved up the center of the nation and while others go north to Tamaulipas. However, in the end, all the paths end in Sonora where migrants are taken across dangerous desert terrain in an attempt to enter the US. 

Migrant deaths

In the first seven months of 2003, Mexico's Secretariat of Exterior Relations reported that 282 Mexicans died while trying to cross to the US. This is a 20% increase in the number of deaths when compared to the same period in 2002.  

In 2000, 311 undocumented migrants died while attempting to enter the US. In 2001, the figure rose to 491. In 2002, the number of deaths dropped to 371. 

Chihuahua detentions of non-Mexicans

Mexico's National Migration Institute, which is partially responsible for enforcing Mexican immigration laws, reports that detentions of undocumented migrants in Chihuahua are up 15% compared to a year ago. So far in 2003, 1,831 people have been detained in Chihuahua for violating immigration laws. The Institute  also noted that these people are from approximately 20 different countries. 

Statistics from the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection

Since 2000, the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has seen a 35% reduction in the number of human smugglers that it and its predecessor organizations detained. In fiscal year 2000, authorities arrested 2,099 "coyotes." For 2001 and 2002, this figure was 1,784 and 1,397 respectively. 

According to Doug Mossier, spokesperson for the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, the decrease in the number of arrested human smugglers is possibly due to tightened border security. With more eyes on the border, less people dare cross it. 

Mossier told the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario that coyotes charges between US$100 and US$500 to cross people over the border from Cd. Juárez to El Paso. Moving people from the interior of Mexico into the US costs from between US$1,500 and US$5,000. From Asia, people pay as much as US$40,000 to get to the US. 

El Diario also reported that other recent Border Patrol statistics indicate that at least 20 networks of coyotes are at work in Ciudad Juárez.

Undocumented migrants stay longer in the US

Rodolfo Rubio, a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef), says that less human traffickers are getting caught because less people are crossing the border illegally. 

"Now that it is harder than ever to enter the US, undocumented migrants are prolonging their stays there," Rubio said. 

According to Colef data, before 1994, undocumented migrants stayed on average six months in the US before returning to Mexico. Now, the average stay is eighteen months. 

Source: El Diario, September 4, 2003. Article by César Cruz Sáenz.