Border security


When Drug Trafficking Is Your Only Option

It’s another scorching hot, downright boring day on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border. Twenty-year-old Alejandro (not his real name) has spent the past four weeks loitering at a migrant shelter here, trying to figure out how to cross the vast desert that lies before him so that he can begin making money to send back to Honduras. With each passing day, it’s becoming increasingly clear that he may have only one ally to assist him in crossing into the United States: the mafia.

On the Mexican side of the border, organized criminal groups control all the northbound smuggling (of humans and goods), charging a tax on every illicit movement into their territory. To pass through, migrants need to hire a smuggler, who then pays the required tax to that city’s dominant criminal group. There are no exceptions. Migrants looking to cross alone or smugglers trying to sneak someone across without paying the required dues are considered to be committing a serious underworld crime, punishable by death.