Thread: Running with the coyotes

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Running with the coyotes

Illegals brave harsh conditions for a chance at higher wages
By Tim Carpenter
The Topeka Capital-Journal



MEXICO CITY — Taxi driver Oscar Rene Garcia didn’t run with the coyotes until he was caught three times trying to immigrate illegally to the United States.

His first attempt ended within minutes of stepping over the border. It was a learning experience that proved the naive never make it far. Accompanied by a friend on the second trip, he surrendered to authorities in the Arizona desert rather than die of starvation. On the third, days of walking in the searing wasteland was forfeited when he was nabbed by U.S. border agents conducting surveillance by helicopter.

“They got me for something I didn’t do well — run fast,” he said.

This 29-year-old father of two — a boy, 2, and girl, 4 — did the math.

Garcia could continue to play it conservatively and care for his family on $30 a day earned on 12-hour shifts driving a cab in one of the world’s most congested cities. Or he could roll the dice and hire a smuggler to help him cross the border into the United States where friends promised there were jobs paying five to 10 times his salary in Mexico.

The smuggler’s fee, he said, was set at $1,500. It was an enormous price for a one-way ticket to the United States. Skeletons in the desert attested to substantial danger awaiting him in what has been called a “sieve of death” and “road of the devil.” The chance of perishing in a crossing in 2005 was elevated, in part, because U.S. officials in the post-Sept. 11 environment brought more scrutiny to the border and pushed the coyotes’ clandestine operations into more inhospitable areas.

Carolina plumber

A team of three smugglers, or “coyotes,” led Garcia and 65 others for eight days across a cactus- and rock-strewn landscape of Arizona. The group dodged immigration officers by creeping through ravines and sprinting across open terrain. Foliage was used to wipe out shoe tracks. Some wore socks over shoes to mask their steps. If detected, they were to scatter in three prearranged groups. Perhaps not all would be apprehended.

The hikers were about to be overtaken by dehydration when saved by inclement weather.

“The water was out, but we were lucky. It rained,” Garcia said.

He eventually made it safely by car to Wilmington, N.C., and without knowledge of English or modern construction techniques landed a job installing plumbing in new homes. His new employer didn’t demand proof of citizenship, a passport or visa. The boss did use that document handicap to compel Garcia to work longer hours for less pay than counterparts on the crew.

Garcia worked from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week. But he felt blessed to eventually make $180 a day, the equivalent of a week’s earnings in Mexico City.

He remained for nine months, voluntarily returning to Mexico City this spring. The man is preparing for another run through the desert and again will head for the East Coast. He isn’t deterred by the hiring of more federal border agents or the construction of additional retaining walls by National Guard troops.

“I’d have to be electrified to stop me,” he said during a break from working own his beleaguered yellow Nissan taxi on a Mexico City barrio street.

One of thousands

The journey for thousands of undocumented immigrants who enter the United States annually from Mexico begins on a bus. It is an inexpensive but tolerable ride to a border town — Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Hidalgo, Las Chepas. The well-heeled might fly to a crossing site, while the poor catch a ride in a railroad freight car.

“I know six or seven people in this neighborhood have gone,” said Mexico City industrial engineer Jesus Gonzalez Morena. “A lot of people are going because they don’t have a lot of hope here.”

Men, women and children of all ages preparing to challenge the desolate frontier with the United States travel light. Belongings must be easily carried. Merchants in border areas make a good living selling necessities: backpacks, clothing, shoes, food, water.

The primary objective at the border is to sign on with a guide. They aren’t difficult to find. Coyotes offering “safe” passage openly troll for prospects in plain sight of Mexican law enforcement.

Competition among smugglers does invite violence in border areas.

“There are kidnappings and murders,” said Juana Arellano Cardenas, a retiree who lives in Nuevo Laredo.

A coyote is viewed as a prudent investment despite the well-deserved reputation of these transporters as unsavory business operators. Named for a predatory animal common in the Southwest, these human traffickers value their clientele as a commodity worth $1,500 to $3,000 if moved across the border undetected. Despite that baggage, successful smugglers are celebrated by some Mexicans as 21st century heros.

Buyer beware

Catholic migrants pause at some crossing points to pray at small candlelit shrines to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico’s beloved protector.

It might be wise for nonbelievers to join them.

Crossing the Rio Grande in areas where the river runs swift and foul can be life-threatening. Folks push across on inner tubes or gain flotation by tying a half-dozen plastic 2-liter bottles together. Clean clothes and belongings are kept dry in black trash sacks. Veterans say it is best to cross from 5 to 6 a.m. during Border Patrol shift change. Others say the time is right whenever those on patrol are engaged in their job elsewhere. Congestion can make for easier crossing.

Once across, movement of coyotes through mesquite brush is guided by stars at night and compass by day. Some guides move with skill and precision. Others get lost, jeopardizing each clients’ dash to the economic promised land. The ultimate price for a misstep can be harsh. The man with a broken leg will be abandoned. A mother who can’t keep pace might meet the same fate.

If water and food supplies don’t last, expect no aid from coyotes to satiate thirst and hunger.

“When the food ran out we ate rabbits,” said John Berrios, who slipped across at Piedras Negras and worked in Texas before returning to his family in Mexico City.

Those crossing sometimes slide on an extra pair of pants at night in an effort to protect themselves from scorpion stings and chilly temperatures. Blistered skin from the sun and long hikes are common. Gritty soil, or “moon dust,” penetrates socks and fills shoes. Rattlesnakes are common.

A big challenge for those on the run is the increasingly broad security net spread along the border. The armory includes infrared devices, cameras, X-ray systems and drones. Agents in the field are equipped with night-vision goggles and tracking dogs.

Those who elude that technology rely on two things: luck and the vastness of the desert.

Catching a lift

Undocumented immigrants crossing on their own in urban centers try to blend quietly into the city as quickly as possible. Once in a residential neighborhood it is less obvious that a person is an uninvited guest. Those crossing in rural areas typically walk until picked up by a short-range driver on the U.S. side. These wheel-men stack people like cordwood in transfer vehicles.

The migrants who owe coyotes money for bringing them across are hauled to a “drop house,” which can be a motel room, apartment or single-family residence.

Not all make it to this transition point. In 2003, a driver pulling a trailer containing 74 illegal immigrants to Houston abandoned the load in Victoria, Texas. The driver’s panic attack led to the death of 19 people who suffocated in the locked trailer.

For those who survive the trip to a guide’s safe house, more terror awaits.

Coyotes temporarily hold immigrants inside these places until they are paid smuggling fees from the immigrants’ family or friends. If cash is slow to arrive by wire transfer, beatings add urgency to the collection process. Those who slip away from smugglers on the U.S. side without paying are placing more than their own health at risk.

“There are families back here,” said Luis Magdeleno, a Mexico City resident who reluctantly told of crossing three separate times at Tijuana, Nogales and Matamoros. “If you don’t pay, something bad can happen to them.”

He expressed concern that escalating enforcement at the border will drive up the prices charged by smugglers. That could compel more people to attempt crossings on their own or to ditch coyotes after making it into the United States, he said.

This smuggling industry on the U.S. border with Mexico is also marked by threat from bandits who make a living stealing undocumented immigrants from rivals to collect ransom.

Real work starts

Immigrants who elude kidnappers and pay off coyotes are free to move on to a destination they feel offers the most economic opportunity. Frequently, that place is a city where friends or family have already blazed a trail.

They get there crammed into the back of service vans, campers or trucks. In some cases, the delivery system operates like a bus service. Long-range drivers may leave a few people in Oklahoma City and a couple in Kansas City before moving on to Chicago and destinations on the East Coast. Comparable routes exist throughout the United States.

Once in friendly confines, the priority is acquisition of false documents useful in gaining employment. In Topeka, inquiries of people who are part of the immigrant community said a bogus Social Security card can be had for $30. A packet of identification materials, including a birth certificate of a real person, can go for $1,000.

Beyond documentation, the language barrier can be a hindrance in job hunts. But in many blue-collar fields, there is usually work for people willing to labor long hours for low pay without complaint. It isn’t uncommon for undocumented immigrants to work every day. The need for cash to pay smuggling debt, cover living expenses in the United States and to have something left each month to send home is that great.

Perhaps the hearty can spare $500 a month for those still in Mexico. Those wire transfers add up. The latest estimate is $20 billion is sent annually by individuals from the United States to Mexico.

The threat of capture and deportation serve as a daily reminder of where the undocumented stand.

“The life is hard on your body. It’s hard on your mind,” said Oscar Rene Garcia, the Mexico City father of two who is contemplating another border run. “For people like me, I don’t see another way.”

Tim Carpenter can be reached at

(785) 295-1158 or

timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.

Garcia could continue to play it conservatively and care for his family on $30 a day earned on 12-hour shifts driving a cab in one of the world’s most congested cities. Or he could roll the dice and hire a smuggler to help him cross the border into the United States where friends promised there were jobs paying five to 10 times his salary in Mexico.

Or....he could have never had the children in the first place. What WAS he thinking, having children when he earns only $30 a day??

Oh, and where are these jobs that pay 10 times his salary in Mexico? $300 a day is DARNED GOOD MONEY. Where can I apply?