Tucson Region

Glossary of terms and locations

● OPERATIVOS: Mexican police units that set up checkpoints and carry out raids. They are similar to a U.S. police SWAT unit. The officers are more heavily armed than typical police officers and travel in groups for protection. ● POLLERO: A chicken wrangler. The term is slang to describe people smugglers because they round up illegal immigrants like pollitos, little chickens. ● DENUNCIAR: To formally accuse a person, the first step in beginning a criminal investigation in Mexico. Under Mexican law, if nobody enters a formal accusation, there can be no crime. This is why, under Mexican laws, smuggling into the United States is a crime that is rarely prosecuted unless it involves bringing people from other countries into Mexico. Illegal immigrants rarely complain to police about their smuggler unless the smuggler blackmailed or kidnapped them. ● ALTAR, SONORA: A border town of about 15,000 people three hours southwest of Tucson. Migrants use the town as a staging area to buy supplies such as backpacks, hats, water and salt tablets before illegally crossing the border into Arizona. Companies operate groups of vans that shuttle the people 70 miles to the border at Sásabe, Sonora along a lone dirt road.Altar drew more than 110,000 migrants into the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector this year. ● BUENOS AIRES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE: About 118,000 acres of public land south of Three Points adjacent to the U.S.-Mexican border. The refuge has an estimated 1,400 linear miles of foot trails created by illegal entrants. On average, one abandoned car left behind by smugglers is pulled out of the refuge each week. ● BUENOS AIRES NEIGHBORHOOD: The eastern section of Nogales, Sonora. It's known as a rough part of town, with hilly streets and dilapidated homes. The area lends itself to illegal crossing, especially on paths made between the homes that span the length of the border. Police and the military patrol the streets only in convoys. ● CASA DE HUÉSPED: It means guest house, but also describes the cheap hotels that cater to illegal immigrants, who rent rooms for as little as $10 a night and rest before they cross into the United States. ● COMIDA CORRIDAS: Cheap, hearty meals popular with migrants passing through border towns like Altar, Sasabe and Agua Prieta where migrants gather before crossing north. ● DROP HOUSE: Homes or apartments where illegal entrants are dropped off and stowed away until the next leg of their smuggling journey begins. Drop houses are most common in Phoenix, but are also beginning to be seen in Tucson and other areas of Southern Arizona. ● GRUPO BETA: Mexico's border safety agents. Their purpose isn't to stop illegal immigration into the United States but to warn Mexican migrants of the danger they face from the weather, the terrain and bandits who prey on illegal border crossers. ● IRONWOOD FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT: About 129,000 acres of public land west of Tucson. In recent years, it's become one of the more popular corridors for illegal entrants, who walk there from the U.S.-Mexican border and are picked up by people smugglers.