Interview with a coyote: human trafficker assures that the business does not end even with Title 42

By Luis Hernández Ojesto M. and Nacho Lozano

A human trafficker who spoke with Noticias Telemundo from the border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, assured that his business has not changed despite the decision of a judge in the United States that upheld the Title 42 rule.

The man, who spoke with presenter

Lozano on condition of anonymity, stated that he was not aware of the recent judicial decision and that he did not know anything about that rule that prevents most migrants from applying for asylum after having crossed illegally. To united states.

Three Cuban migrants arrive on US soil after crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas;

on May 22, 2022. Dario Lopez-Mills / AP

"We continue to work normally every day,"

he said, according to Lozano.

"They contact me from over there in Chiapas. Every time someone brings people or sends people, they tell me: 'Hey, people are going to come to you.' city," said the coyote.

Just for crossing the Rio Grande at the border with McAllen, Texas,

When they make it across, another group on the other side picks them up and hides them in safe houses already on the US side.

[Three migrants “stuck” on top of the border wall in Otay Mesa are rescued]

His group

the smuggler said.

Based on the fees it charges, that means the band earns up to $90,000 a day, which is divided among the different members.

"Whoever they get, they start distributing [the money] to the lifters, they pay the boatman, the one who rows, the checkers, because everything is well checked there, we have to make sure that no immigration movement is seen, because it has to be safe. Once it's on that side, our share arrives and that's how we each divide it," the man explained.

By land, water and air, efforts are intensifying to contain the border.

But the migrants persist

May 23, 202203:42

What happen with the kids?

One of the biggest challenges coyotes face is moving children.

In decades past, most migrants were men traveling without children or women.

But this has changed in recent years, as more and more families and unaccompanied children try to cross the border into the United States.

Earlier this year,

from the same period last year.

From October 2021 to December 2021, more than 26,000 children without their parents were apprehended by border agents.

Most of them came from Guatemala, about 42%, Honduras, more than 24%, Mexico, 16%, and El Salvador, almost 13%. 

"It has already happened to me to take children and yes it is a struggle, more than anything because carrying them is one more weight for one. But more than anything they always go with their parents and they try to calm them down because they cannot be making noise there in the mountains "recounted the coyote.

[Most of the country believes that express removals should continue]

business and drama

The good moment that the illegal business of coyotes is experiencing on the border contrasts with the human drama that migrants suffer to cross.

Along the way they face Mexican criminal gangs, extortion from local police and Mexican immigration agents.

As well as the traffic accidents that are frequent when traveling on train cars or in overloaded vans or trucks, with poor ventilation and without basic road safety measures such as the use of seat belts.

They are one step away from the US, but they feel very far away: the drama of migrants on the Mexican side intensifies

May 23, 202202:20

Then, when crossing the border, most are returned to Mexico without the right to request asylum and continue their immigration case from the United States, due to the Title 42 health ordinance.

More than 234,000 crossed the border in April this year

, most of them after multiple attempts.

Many of them decide to stay in Mexico to try to cross the border again, but returned migrants there are more likely to fall back into the hands of organized crime in border cities.

[Efforts to Contain Border Intensify]

The Human Rights First organization has evidence of at least

on migrants stranded in Mexico by Title 42 under the Joe Biden Administration.