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  Frontera NorteSur
March 2002

IMMIGRATION

Workings of a Méxicali Coyote Community

According to the Méxicali newspaper La Crónica, that city's Villa Zapata neighborhood is "a nest of human traffickers."

Located near the Méxicali airport and near an official border crossing, Villa Zapata is home to approximately 400 families that live without electricity. The neighborhood is also faced with problems stemming from questions about uncertain land ownership.

Now, according to a La Crónica article from February 18, the neighborhood has become the home of various groups of human traffickers, known in Mexico as polleros or coyotes. The coyotes have even grown so bold as to say that they work with local police, according to La Crónica.

Despite breaking Mexican laws, and despite providing services to minors that want to go to the US, the coyotes are not pursued by federal law enforcement, according to residents. While residents have seen Grupo Beta agents a few times in their neighborhood, they have not seen state or federal police. Grupo Beta is a federal agency that often receives local funding to protect and rescue migrants from dangerous situations.

The situation among the local police is reported to be worse, according La Crónica, which stated that different police stations have fought over who will receive protection money from the coyotes.

Source: La Crónica (Méxicali), February 18, 2002. Article by José Manuel Yépiz Ruiz.

Cold Weather Endangers Migrants and Closes Roads in Baja California

Below freezing temperatures and snow in the areas around Tijuana and Tecate forced Mexican officials to close frozen roads and rescue migrants that had become stranded while seeking to enter the US on January 29, 2002.

A group of five young migrants from Michoacán and Jalisco requested and received help at a toll booth in the mountains near Tecate, a small city between Méxicali and Tijuana. The five men and women then told the migrant-aid group Grupo Beta Tecate where to go and look for fourteen more migrants that were seeking shelter from the elements in a series of caves. The five also told Grupo Beta that they had been lost since they were abandoned by their guide.

The Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Preventative Police, PFP) also closed for one hour both the free and toll Méxicali-Tijuana highways due to ice on the roads. There was one accident on the free highway in which a tractor trailer hit ice and ran into bus. There were no injuries.

Source: Frontera, January 30, 2002. Article by Angel Ruiz, Alondra Vela and Aline Corpus.