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Smuggling game gets deadlier
Fatalities rise as border traffickers turn to big money in human cargo

01:27 AM CDT on Monday, May 15, 2006
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News


NEELY'S CROSSING, Texas – The contraband that crossed the Rio Grande here was once overwhelmingly pot and cocaine. These days, the goods smuggled across are perhaps even more profitable: human cargo.

As the U.S. government considers the use of military resources and troops to shore up border security, drug traffickers are increasingly building alliances – often deadly – with coyotes, cashing in on the lucrative human smuggling trade, say agents patrolling the border. That finding is widely buttressed by other U.S. intelligence agents and human rights organizations.

"The human trade is so lucrative," said Michael Griego, Border Patrol agent-in-charge of this region near Fort Hancock, southeast of El Paso. "The money is there."

Ramiro Cordero, another Border Patrol agent, added, "If we seize their drug loads, the smugglers lose the entire shipment. Humans represent renewable resources, so that makes them more lucrative."

That is because immigrants deported to Mexico by U.S. authorities usually cross again within hours, he said. "With renewable resources, smugglers have nothing to lose."

While the national debate on overhauling the country's immigration laws intensifies in Washington, the cat-and-mouse games here continue, not with once-trusted smugglers, but with ruthless drug traffickers who view violence as a way of life.

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The risks are higher for illegal immigrants and nearly everyone else, from local law enforcement, ranchers, armed border vigilante groups, known as Minutemen, to Border Patrol agents. Last year, 192 agents were assaulted with rocks, and others were fired upon, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

With tougher enforcement expected as part of any immigration deal that emerges from the current debate in Congress, the situation is expected to deteriorate. One senior U.S. official warns, "The situation will clearly become more volatile for both sides."

Last year, 463 migrants died crossing the border, according to the Latin American Working Group, a Washington-based human rights organization. With the peak crossing season just days away, 2006 is on pace to reach 600 deaths, said Sean Mariano Garcia, the group's associate director.

But the deaths aren't just heat-related, Mr. Garcia added. Deaths increasingly reflect the presence of criminal organizations that view human cargo as "merchandise, or cattle with no regard to human life," Mr. Garcia said.

"Ten years ago, human smuggling was a mom-and-pop operation, something that neighbors did on the side," he said. "The smuggler was usually someone you knew, someone who had perhaps been referred to you from your hometown. Not anymore."

As the border becomes more militarized, smuggling requires increased sophistication, such as night goggles, GPS systems and sensitive listening devices. And as U.S. authorities crack down on drug traffickers with the help of border sheriffs through an operation in Texas known as Linebacker, organized crime is turning to coyotes to make up for lost business.

Human trafficking into the U.S. through Mexico is a $10 billion annual industry, U.S. authorities and academics say. Plans for a 700-mile, $2.2 billion fence – whether physical, or high-tech – along parts of the 2,000-mile border and the presence of U.S. troops or the National Guard will increase business, they say.

"Mexican drug traffickers have long-standing connections in Colombia – now so too [do] human traffickers," said Dr. Hilary Dick, an anthropologist and immigration scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. "These alliances not only expose our immigrant labor pool to a seedy and dangerous underworld of crime, they make traffickers more powerful, thus exacerbating the chaos and corruption that runs rife along our border with Mexico. Building a wall or bringing in troops will not keep traffickers out. It is only going to give them more incentive to violate our laws and charge more."

Already, the cost to smuggle Mexicans into the U.S. has quadrupled from about $300 to more than $1,200 since September 1994, when the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso began the first major crackdown against illegal immigration.

Along the El Paso sector, which encompasses the West Texas and southern New Mexico region, agents such as Mr. Cordero see another troubling pattern. Last year 31 migrants died trying to cross the border. Of that number, eight bodies recovered had traces of white powder, likely speed or cocaine.

"Smugglers are desperate, and they will push pills or any other type of substance to force migrants to keep up with the group, without any thought whatsoever to health consequences," Mr. Cordero said.

Near San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato, 23-year-old Saul Vazquez, a night watchman taking care of sheep, recalls crossing the Rio Grande near Columbus, N.M., a year ago on his way to McKinney in Collin County.

An overweight man crossing with him had trouble staying up with the group of about six people. The smuggler gave the man an ultimatum: " 'Either swallow the pills, or we'll leave you behind in the desert,' " recalled Mr. Vazquez, a father of two. "The man took the pills and was so hyperactive the rest of the day that at night he couldn't sleep, or breathe right. I was afraid he'd die. The risks are so much higher today."

Still, the flow of humans continues. Neely's Crossing, named after a local rancher, is seeing an increase of immigrants, perhaps as a result of tough enforcement in Arizona pushing border-crossers eastward toward Texas. Border Patrol agents have detained more than 1,200 illegal immigrants in the Fort Hancock area, twice the number from a year ago in an area known mainly for drug seizures.

Across Neely's Crossing lies the Mexican border town of El Porvenir, where U.S. authorities say the powerful Escajeda organization used to specialize in drug smuggling. Nowadays, Mr. Gallegos said, "Until we stop a vehicle here, we're not going to know if it's drugs or humans anymore."

He said the $1,200 to $1,300 migrants used to pay to reach Dallas is likely to "double, even triple," in the months to come, adding, "The game will continue, only deadlier."

Belo TV Border Chief Angela Kocherga contributed to this report.


E-mail acorchado@dallasnews.com