Despite Recession Coyotes Still Doing Well, El Diario/La Prensa Reports
By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor
A portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo: Isha.Net*/Flickr)
The economic recession does not seem to be affecting the human smugglers known as coyotes, according to a story published Tuesday in the New York Spanish-language newspaper El Diario/La Prensa.
The coyotes‘ business is still doing well, reporter Cristina Loboguerrero wrote after interviewing two men who take part in a chain of human trafficking that starts in Guatemala and reaches the New York metropolitan area and other U.S. regions.
“Last September, I got scared because the business went down 50 percent,” Jorge, a Salvadoran smuggler who has done this work for ten years, told the reporter. “But the truth is that it has been picking up slowly, although the price for bringing someone went up almost $1,000.”
According to the story, Jorge is one of the people in charge of transporting undocumented immigrants from cities in the southwest such as Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, to states including South and North Carolina, Maryland, New York and New Jersey.