Criminal organizations prey upon vulnerable migrants — often multiple times — during their journeys to the border and as they’re marooned in Mexico.
The fingers of the smoldering flame snapped and flickered before the eyes of Luis Manuel Matos Alcantara as he stood shoulder to shoulder with a dozen other migrants, all confronting the dark, bitterly cold morning on the Cocopah Reservation near Yuma.
Migrants and asylum seekers are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma County, near the Cocopah Indian Tribe's reservation on Dec. 8, 2022. Border Patrol agents estimated the group to be about 700 people.The kidnappers, often affiliated with Mexico's violent drug cartels, raided a bus Alcantara was riding in northern Mexico and searched everyone aboard, robbing them of all valuables and taking any migrants not from Mexico outside.
A handful of his remaining friends were taken by the men, joining thousands of other victims of criminal organizations who prey upon vulnerable migrants during their journeys to the U.S. and as they’re marooned in Mexico. Smugglers, known as “coyotes,” exploit migrants for thousands of dollars to take them across the U.S.-Mexico border, and, sometimes, extort them into carrying drugs, experts say.
Migrants and asylum seekers are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma County, near the Cocopah Indian Tribe's reservation on Dec. 8, 2022. Border Patrol agents estimated the group to be about 700 people.Mexican cartels are criminal syndicates, composed of numerous smaller factions, that exert control over large portions of the U.S.-Mexico border and often profit from drug, smuggling and human extortion operations.
will lead to increased migration levels as “smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants," Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in an April memo when the policy was set to end in May.Vast fields of lettuce and winter vegetables stretch toward Yuma on the U.S. side of the border near the Cocopah Reservation. The line of migrants made its way off tribal lands and toward the border fence.
Opposite the fields, in Baja California, Mexico, cars can be seen driving along a highway a short distance away. Migrants are often dropped off at the highway and walk the rest of the way to the border, according to Border Patrol. Migrants and asylum seekers are detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma County, near the Cocopah Indian Tribe's reservation on Dec. 8, 2022. Border Patrol agents estimated the group to be about 700 people.Migrants usually fly into Mexico City or Cancún in the latter legs of their journeys and then fly to Mexicali, Baja California, according to Border Patrol.
Nearby, a group of about a dozen migrants from the Dominican Republic said they each paid $7,000 to make the journey. Today, smugglers don’t have to cross the border with migrants anymore as the whole process is arranged for them to get to the border and cross in areas where there’s a lack of infrastructure or agents are overwhelmed with migration flows, Clem added.
“Everybody works directly or indirectly for the cartels because they allow you to operate for a charge,” Osorio said. “Cartels have incentives not to get directly involved themselves in this activity as a strategy to diversify risk.” “Along the smuggling chains, the cartels are much more involved than they were 20 years ago,” Felbab-Brown said. “It's much greater than it used to be and along many more points than it used to be.”
Smugglers see migrants as a “recyclable commodity” — people who can be exploited numerous times as they’re deported or return to their home countries before trying to migrate again, Rede said. While cartels control large swaths of the U.S.-Mexico border, the organizations are composed of numerous smaller criminal groups. These smaller groups often switch fidelity between different cartels, sometimes day to day, Felbab-Brown said.
The former strangers found refuge in each other as cartel members, donned in all-black attire with masks that only revealed their eyes, descended on their bus traveling toward Mexicali, Baja California. The two women were both traveling from Nicaragua, their home country, to seek asylum in the U.S. The pair huddled together on a recent morning, bundled in winter coats, hats and gloves with their blue medical face masks scrunched underneath their chins. As they spoke near one of the bonfires, a few other migrants waiting in line near them began to share similar experiences they endured along the journey.
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