OJINAGA, Mexico — Jose Spencer’s small motel is bustling
with business, and that makes him worried about the future.
His clients are men and women who dream of working in the United
States. Until recently, border crossers were rare in this isolated, treacherous
desert region near Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. But
not anymore, Spencer says.
“This is a tranquil place. That’s why they’re coming in
bigger numbers now — no guns, no gangs, at least for now.”
But Spencer, whose Casa de Huespedes motel holds 20 guests,
is worried that his growing clientele will lure the men with guns who make it
their business to control the illegal cross-border traffic in the region. He
knows that popular human-smuggling routes attract the thugs who prey on illegal
immigrants and the easy cash they represent.
Illegal crossings are down sharply along most of the
2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, based on the number of illegal immigrants caught
trying to sneak into the U.S. The percentages are down by double digits in
every region except San Diego and West Texas.
The Marfa sector, with 790 Border Patrol agents, shares 510
miles of border with Mexico. In this sector, apprehensions are expected to rise
by about 1,000 — about a 20 percent increase — over the 5,391 crossers caught
in 2008, the first increase in more than four years, said Bill Brooks,
spokesman for the sector.
While the numbers may appear small when compared with those
from other sectors, they represent a surprising rise in a region where the
rough terrain has proved to be the biggest deterrent to illegal immigration.
The increase in human smuggling has residents bracing for
the arrival of drug traffickers, particularly members of the paramilitary group
known as the Zetas.
Once the enforcers of the Gulf cartel, the Zetas have
expanded into a variety of other criminal activities, including taking over
lucrative human-smuggling routes. Already, the Zetas control much of the
Texas-Mexico border region, authorities say.
The state of Chihuahua is the only region of northeastern
Mexico where the Zetas’ presence is minimal, authorities say. But the longtime
kingpin of Chihuahua, the Juarez cartel, is engaged in an intense turf war with
the Sinaloa cartel over control of distribution routes, and their future is in
doubt. This, U.S. law enforcement officials say, provides an opening for the
Zetas.
To those who control the smuggling routes, immigrants are
often forced to pay exorbitant amounts of cash — or less, if they agree to
smuggle drugs into the U.S.
“Coyotes,” or smugglers, charge about $1,500 to
sneak clients from Ojinaga to Dallas. If illegal immigrants are caught, they
are returned to Mexico, where they usually try again.
“They’re a renewable commodity,” said a U.S. law
enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If the Ojinaga
region continues to grow with smuggling activity, you can bet the Zetas will
arrive, sooner rather than later. They have an uncanny ability to smell
cash.”
Brooks, however, cautioned, “We haven’t seen those
indicators yet.”
He and other U.S. authorities credit tightened enforcement
by Border Patrol agents as the key to the reduced crossings overall into Texas.
Still, enforcement is just part of the story.
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Motel guests Jorge and his boyhood pal Juan, both 22 and
from Tuxtla Gutierrez in the southern state of Chiapas, were on their way to
the Big Spring area to work in construction. They’re both first-time crossers,
they said.
Their hired coyote warned them that the steaming Arizona
desert could become a premature grave. They were told that crossing through the
region directly east of Ciudad Juarez, known as the Valley, was too dangerous
because of the turf war between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels, which has left
more than 2,000 people dead this year. And South Texas? That’s Zetas territory,
they were told. So Ojinaga it was.
“The border is very dangerous,” Jorge said.
“This is the only area where things seem more calm, more safe. So we’ll
try our luck, and if we don’t make it we’ll return to Chiapas and work in the
coffee fields.”
Juan had no comment. He was resting his head on a twin bed,
watching soccer scores, waiting for a soap opera to begin, waiting for
darkness, for midnight, to begin their trek north. They planned to walk over
the moonlit Chihuahuan desert, which spills into picturesque Far West Texas.
For migrants, the goal is to reach one of the main highways,
U.S. Highway 90 or Interstate 10, about 60 and 100 miles away, respectively.
The region is mountainous and laced with canyons and rivers.
There are few towns. The sand dunes, studded with cactus and ocotillos, are
treacherous to cross. More than 370 people have died attempting to cross the
border this year, immigrant advocates say.
“It’s a myth that’s it’s easier to cross,” Brooks
said of the Ojinaga area. “It’s not.”
Despite the dangers, would-be migrants are coming in droves.
Alfredo Ronquillo, who heads the government-run shelter
known as the DIF, shows off a log book he keeps of hundreds who cross the
border through Ojinaga.
“Chiapas, Coahuila, Durango, Oaxaca, Chihuahua,”
he says, rattling off names of the home states penned by the migrants.
“There are too many. And their numbers are growing.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
