Thread: 5 Investigates Border Smuggling Town

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5 Investigates Border Smuggling Town

POSTED: 8:55 am MST May 1, 2008
UPDATED: 1:13 pm MST May 1, 2008


ALTAR, Mexico -- Sheriff Joe Arpaio, federal immigration agents and new state laws are all trying to curb illegal immigration, but a CBS 5 investigation discovered a place that tries to make it easier for people to cross the border from Mexico into Arizona.

5 Investigates traveled to Altar, Mexico, a smuggler town a few hours south of the Valley.

Barely a blip on the map, Altar is the hub where would-be immigrants from all over Mexico gather before heading north into Arizona.

The town is located on a crossroad. The main drag connects Mexican border towns across the southwest, but the economic backbone of the community is illegal immigration. Even the town's baseball team is called the "Coyotes," slang for human smugglers.

Motor coaches and vans line the streets. The buses bring the would-be immigrants up from the south to meet up with smugglers in the town square. Then the vans take them north to the Arizona border.

The store fronts lining the streets sell the supplies needed for the dangerous hike across the Sonoran Desert. The wares include camouflage backpacks, black sweatshirts for night travel, black ski masks, bandages and drugs, including speed, to keep the migrants walking for hours.

The store also sells clean clothes for the migrants to change into once they reach Tucson or Phoenix so no one will be able to tell they just crossed the border.

But a Red Cross trailer parked across the street means there's also a health concern in Altar. Inside, a lone medic was treating the feet of an injured migrant. She said foot injuries are among the most common problems she sees.

Inside the Altar church, immigrants pray for protection during their journey north. Investigative reporter Morgan Loew tried to talk to them, but a smuggler warned them off.

A short distance away, another group was willing to talk. They said the trip to the U.S. proved too difficult, so they were heading back home to the south -- a possible sign that the efforts to curb illegal immigration in Arizona may be having an effect.

Still, the buses and vans parked in the street are proof that more border crossers are coming.
http://www.kpho.com/news/16108337/detail.html

And the Mexican government is..........