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Lourlin Lara CB

 

Drug Cartels, Human Trafficking, and

 the US and Mexico border

 

While there are several issues that spark important conversation and demand effective action with respect to the U.S. and Mexico border, one of the most prominent issues is the exploitation committed by drug cartels in the form of human trafficking, and the detrimental implications it has on innocent lives.

 

 

What is Human Trafficking? According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, Human Trafficking can be defined as the 

 

...recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons...for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include...the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs

 

We have all heard the stories of generations before us immigrating to America in search for better opportunities to forge a more fulfilling life than what they had in their countries of origin. Many come to find work in order to send for their families or send money to their families back home, many come to gain a better education, and many come because they have no choice but to flee from persecution. 

What does it look like?

Desperate migrants are often tricked into believing that once they reach the border, the "Coyotes" will release them to capture their "American Dream". Unfortunately in many cases, these migrants end up dead from resisting or subject to the forms of trafficking below.

Drug Mules

For those who have lost their money or cannot pay what is charged of them, one of the options is to be a “mochilando”, or drug mule. Often carrying and delivering drugs at the cartel’s discretion, “mochilandos” are still at risk of being executed even after the delivery has been completed.

Prostitution

Another form of “Coyotes” taking advantage of desperate migrants, women and children are sought after for their sexual services as they sell them off to “pimps” once they take them across the border. Once in the U.S., they’re moved along a trafficking route as a means to keep them vulnerable through confusion, violence and debt bondage.

 

...pimps frequently take their victims’ passports, using the threat of deportation as a technique to keep their victims from going to the police.

 

 

Extortion of resources 

Aside from Human Trafficking, drug cartels also charge migrants up to $4,500 in addition to $700 in tax in order to pass through. For these cartels, it’s an easier way to fund their ploys and has less of a penalty with respect to the law, and leaves migrants with no means to cross-over, often bringing them back to the only options of being a drug mule or subject to prostitution.

 

 

Implications of the power of drug cartels

As drug cartels continue to essentially control the flow of migrants, exploiting larger numbers of aspiring migrants to fulfill their needs, it subjects the country of Mexico to numerous consequences, an intensified sphere of violence  against women, the exploitation of families and children, and an overall stronger influence on an already corrupt government.  Additionally, due to the rivalry between different cartels, the there is an existing competition for migrants, and make anyone attempting to cross the border a high-risk target.

 

 

No matter the case, the trip is no easy feat. Not only does migrating require the funds and the situational means to leave their homes in the first place, hopeful immigrants must also deal with border customs, which have only discouraged the amount of people trying to cross the border. Leaving behind the comfort of your home for an unknown precedent comes with challenges, and perhaps there is no more dangerous challenge than the attempt to cross through the border from Mexico to the United States.

 

 

 

 

Sources (Information & Pictures)

  • https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2017-Dec/BP%20Southwest%20Border%20Apps%20Fencing%20FY17.pdf
  • https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/01/deadly-human-trafficking-business-mexico-border-160117073423022.html
  • https://nacla.org/blog/2017/03/09/%E2%80%9Cdisappeared%E2%80%9D-us-mexico-border
  • http://www.france24.com/en/20140803-usa-immigration-children-border-central-america-refugees-not-immigrants
  • https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html#What_is_Human_Trafficking
  • https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1144&context=ppr
  • http://www.hellonearthblog.com/2011/07/1000-arrested-in-juarez-sex-and-human.html
  • http://www.banderasnews.com/0509/eded-coyote.htm
  • http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/07/coyote_windfall_how_ruthless_human_smugglers_cash_in_on_wave_of
  • http://riogallinasschool.org/academics/expeditionary-learning/bordering-on-ethics
  • http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/immigration_map_what_are_the_biggest_immigrant_groups_in_your_state.html