In Their Own Words: Children and the Facilitation of Migrant Journeys on the U.S.-Mexico Border

ABSTRACT

This study follows a group of 18 young people living the US-Mexico border city of Juarez who participate in assisting migrants to cross into the US clandestinely. As young mobility facilitators, the children are quick to adapt to market conditions and connect their social resources and knowledge of the geography to eke out a living. However, their experiences are also reflective of a complex series of community building and self-fulfillment dynamics not documented in the literature of the practice known by the state as migrant smuggling. Relying on data collected by the children themselves, we argue that increased securitization and border hardening have brought about income-generating practices to people living along the U.S.-Mexico border. But that rather than these being solely tied to the activities of transnational organized crime (namely, drug trafficking organizations) said practices constitute community-based responses to the increasing marginalization and inequality afflicting Mexico’s Northern border region. Findings in this study challenge mainstream perceptions concerning migrant smuggling dynamics, and open new possibilities in our understanding of the motivations and lives of the people behind migrant journeys.

KEYWORDS:

• Ciudad Juarez
• migrant Smuggling
• children
• organized crime
• US-Mexico border

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Throughout this essay we use the term “facilitation of migrant journeys” rather than “smuggling” in an attempt to highlight the latter’s state-centric nature and the way it has come to criminalize mobility practices which are not inherently criminal. Along the same lines, while aware of the existence of local terms that are used to designate the children who participate in the facilitation of migration (“polleritos” or “coyotitos”) we opted not to use them for 1. the children do not use them and 2. the terms reproduce the criminal notions tied to the facilitation of migrant journeys and ascribe them onto children.

2. By November of 2019 an estimated 40.000 people were in waiting lists in multiple cities on the Mexican side of the U.S.- Mexico border.

3. “Cool” or “fun.”

4. Most “circuit children” are returned to Mexico a few hours after their apprehension by U.S. authorities; on occasion, given the time of the day, they may be kept overnight before being released to Mexico’s welfare agency.

5. At least six children have died after being shot by U.S. CBP agents. Two of them, Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez and Sergio Hernandez Guereca, were accused of being involved in migrant smuggling.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime [None].