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They are called �coyotes.� They are elusive, wily and devious. Their trade is smuggling illegal immigrants across the border, and as the task has become increasingly difficult in the Post-9/11 world, demand for their services has skyrocketed. However, what many illegal immigrant hopefuls do not realize is just how dangerous the practice has become. The coyotes are notorious for keeping their clients in the dark about such perils, and the discovery of the bodies of eleven illegal immigrants in a train car in Iowa last month, all discovered to be clients of a coyote, underscores just how brutal the practice can be. Andrew Satter reports from the Chicago suburb of Skokie, which has become an increasingly popular destination for Mexican Immigrants, about how this practice has affected the Mexican community there:
SATTER:
It�s a long way from the sunny fields and the dusty hills of Mexico, yet scores of Mexican immigrants have found their way to America�s heartland to start a new life in pursuit of the American Dream. Many of them are here legitimately. However for every legal Mexican immigrant, each one knows at least one or two illegal immigrants, many of whom either smuggled themselves across the border or rented out the services of a coyote. They all know of the horror stories associated with �coyote� smuggle attempts, which are often disorganized, crude and routinely unsuccessful.
Juan Espinoza is a respected man in the rather large Chicago Mexican community. The Skokie resident is a Sales Manager at Country Wide Home Loans in Chicago, and while he immigrated to the United States legally from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, he has seen firsthand the destruction wrought by coyotes upon the local Mexican community. He speaks angrily about the coyotes who smuggle in poor, uneducated Mexicans with the promise of helping them get situated and established once they are in the United States, and then disappear as soon as the illegal crosses the border.
ESPINOZA:
No body talks about the underground deaths of the Mexicans, they come here alone, they have no relatives, no friends and as they try to assimilate they fall between the cracks. You won�t see their obituaries in the Tribune or the Sun-Times, no body knows where they are. They come here for a better life, they don�t come here to abuse anybody or take advantage of anybody, but they�re so innocent that deaths abound. The only people that would know are the morgues. We have no dental records, no DNA records, nothing to identify them.
SATTER:
A happy ending to Espinoza�s sad tale does not appear to be on the horizon any time soon. Mario Villarreal is a spokesman for the Border Patrol and he knows that the INS� shift to tighten the borders has had the unfortunate consequence of providing both more business for coyotes and has created an isolated and lonely environment for those illegals who do manage to get in. But he also knows there is very little the INS can do to stop the practice completely, and he says that as long as there are borders separating the privileged from the unprivileged, immigrant smuggling will be big business.
VILLARREAL:
It�s definitely a major concern for the US Border Control but we�re definitely trying to get the word out. This is something that we proactively try to prevent by using public service announcement and working with Mexico, as well as warning would be illegals
not to trust the unscrupulous smuggler. They�re lying to them and they�re not preparing them for the elements, not telling them what clothes to bring. We must combat this through education and awareness, although we�ll do our part to catch these guys.
SATTER:
In the meantime, Espinoza says that the Mexican community is banding together to try and support any abandoned illegals who find their way to the greater Chicago area. He also says that he will continue to warn his friends back in Mexico about deceitful �coyotes� and will strongly dissuade them from seeking out their services. But, he admits if he ever gets a request from a friend or family member to ship them money to finance their trip � and he knows he eventually will - he won�t hesitate to do so.