Life on the border — Entering the US illegally
by Hugh Holub on Jul.25, 2010

People don’t just wander across the border and land somewhere in the US to start looking for a job.

According to many sources intimately involved with the flow of undocumented migrants across the US-Mexico border, the system is highly organized. In fact, the whole process depends on organized criminal activity.

Here’s how I understand it works:

A person in a Mexican town decides to head north to work. Sometimes whole groups of people from a village decide to go to the US. In some cases the migration from that community has been going on for generations.

The would-be migrants have a destination in mind. The destination is where other family members or friends are already living. Or where there is a high probability of a job waiting for them.

They either contact a “coyoteâ€