Current Policy Allows Coyotes to Prosper

I have attempted to show on this blog that the current border policy in the United States hurts both those who wish to immigrate and the United States itself. The long, complicated process deters many immigrants from attempting to go through the system, and as a result the U.S. misses out on many workers, both skilled and unskilled, that our economy desperately needs. Not to mention the incalculable contributions that immigrants make to American culture, which has always benefited from a wide variety of ingredients to make it a "melting pot" that is envied throughout the world.

But this is not to say that no one is benefiting from our draconian border policy, in fact one group of criminals is thriving because of it. People smugglers, or "Coyotes" as they are called in the southwestern United States, exist mainly because the current immigration process is so painstakingly long, and even pointless, for many who aspire to immigrant to the U.S. The process takes years and there is no guarantee of ever getting a visa, especially if you are poor and only marginally educated.

As a result, many decide to cross the border illegally, sometimes enlisting the help of a coyote. These coyotes are sometimes hailed as heroes for helping people start a better life in the U.S., however underneath this Robin Hood like perception lies a reality filled with violence, abuse and exploitation.

As people smuggling has become more profitable, the fee charged per immigrant has increased from around $200 to $1,500, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, honest and independent coyotes are being muscled out by violent drug cartels and organized gangs.

"This used to be a family business. The coyote and the migrant were from the same town; they were connected. Now, because of the so-called security needs of the border, what's been created is this structure of smuggling in the hands of really nasty people who only treat the migrant as a commodity," said Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, chair of the department of transborder studies at Arizona State University, in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The drug cartels have also merged their drug trafficking and people smuggling operations, forcing immigrants to transport drugs as their fee for crossing, according to the same article.

These new organizations have little sympathy for their clients, and many are malnourished, dehydrated, and even abandoned during their journey to the U.S. Violence between gangs has also increased, including a shootout on Interstate 10 in 2003 during which four coyotes were killed, according to an article in the Arizona Republic.

The same article says that smugglers were much less common a decade ago and instead immigrants were helped by other immigrants for much less money. But as federal authorities started cracking down, people smugglers have increased to help immigrants navigate the more complicated route to the United States.

The relatively new phenomenon of organized people smuggling, coinciding with stricter enforcement on the border, shows that eliminating the problem is as simple as eliminating the smugglers clientele. The creation of a guest worker program would go a long way towards keeping powerless people out of the clutches of powerful, and ruthless, drug cartels.