Migrants pass the time in a Naco, Sonora, hotel room, waiting for nightfall when they can cross into the United States; Naco is a major crossing point

Connecting with guides proves a big advantage

By Ignacio Ibarra
The Arizona Daily Star

AGUA PRIETA, Sonora - Mario Arias has an advantage over the thousands of migrants who search this city for someone to get them safely across the border.

Arias, 17, made his first connection with smugglers in his home village in Chiapas. A respected village elder helped him and a companion make arrangements.

Arias won't say how much the trip to the United States will cost, but said he had no choice but to come.

``For us, it's a question of staying home to die of hunger, or go to the other side and look for work. (The contact) knows how the thing is done and helps with those details.

``Still, things look different once you're here,'' Arias says as he waits for nightfall with a crossing guide and about a dozen men and women a few miles west of Douglas.

Advance planning is common for Central American and Southern Mexican migrants, but many Mexican migrants arrive with no such arrangements.

That makes them dependent on the polleros - young men, mostly, whose jobs are to gather groups of pollos (chicks) they can turn over to the coyote, or smuggler.

One young man dressed in a baggy gangsta look said he can earn $2 to $5 for each migrant he delivers to a local hotel that serves as the pickup point for one local smuggling organization.

Like the other polleros, he seeks out clients at bus stations, taxi stops, taco stands and hotels - the places where migrants are most likely to arrive and congregate.

Border crossers frequently hang out at Naco's central plaza on their journey north

At Plaza Azueta, Agua Prieta's central park, families on weekend outings and young couples on romantic walks have given way to desperate-looking migrants huddled in groups as the smugglers' agents make their pitches.

At the northeast corner of the park, migrants crowd around a bank of telephone booths, making calls to relatives back home or attempting to make contact with their smugglers.

One young caller assures the person on the line, ``Everything is ready. All you have to do is get here. You can arrange that or we can do it for you.

``How much? About $600 each to get to Phoenix. For about $1,500, we'll get you to your destination. You just tell us where you want to go.''

A short distance away, 10 men sitting in the shade of the kiosk at the center of the park catch the attention of several polleros.

One of them, a pretty young woman in a short white skirt and escorted by two men, tells the group she can help them reach the Phoenix airport and fly them wherever they want.

``It costs more, but it's more secure,'' she assures them.

In the end, a 14-year-old boy clinches the deal with a hook they can't refuse.

``It's guaranteed. You don't pay anything until you arrive,'' he says before leading them to a hotel a few blocks away.

At hotels, restaurants and bus stations, migrants encounter the next person in the local smuggling chain, the brincador (jumper), or border-crossing guide.

The guide moves the migrants in groups that range from just a few people to 20, 30 or more.

Usually a local, the brincador uses his knowledge of the terrain to stake out routes and hiding places where he can wait for the right moment to cross.

``From what I've seen, guides like to work a certain area that they know and are comfortable with,'' said Douglas Border Patrol Supervisor Victor Colon.

One Agua Prieta crossing guide, who gave his name as Marcos, said he earns $20 or more to cross Mexican migrants. But some migrants report paying their crossing guides up to $100.

The smugglers use cell phones, secure radios and night-vision equipment to keep track of the Border Patrol agents working across the line. They communicate closely with scouts, safe house operators and drivers to coordinate the delivery of the illegal entrants.

For most illegal entrants crossing here, Phoenix is the first major stop in the United States, but getting there can involve time at safe houses along the way.

Members of a Naco-based alien smuggling ring moved illegal entrants from Naco to Phoenix using a network of safe houses in Naco, Bisbee, Sierra Vista and Tucson.