Colloquially, a coyote is a person who smuggles immigrants across the Mexico–United States border.David Spener, Clandestine Crossings: Migrants and Coyotes on the Texas-Mexico Border. Cornell University Press: 2009 The word "coyote" is a loanword from Mexican Spanish that usually refers to a species of North American canine (Canis latrans).
Migrants pay coyotes a fee to guide them across the border. Fees are normally collected once the migrant arrives at a predetermined destination, usually a border city in California, Texas, or Arizona. Since the 1990s, the proportion of migrants who hire coyotes has increased drastically as a result of intensified surveillance along the border.
Background
Early system: 1882–1917
Since the end of the nineteenth century, coyotes have been a part of the illegal migratory process for many Mexican migrants. From 1882 to 1917, a series of U.S. legislations contributed to the rise of the coyote in illegal border crossings. The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and Immigration Act of 1885 caused the flow of labour to decline. This led to severe labour shortages in the south-western and western regions of the country.
The demand for Mexican workers from U.S. employers rose and by 1884, supply was guaranteed when the railway connection of El Paso, Texas, with Mexico was completed. The illegal migratory crossings were largely unregulated and accepted as de facto acceptable practices.
"Enganchadores", Spanish for "hookers" (from the verb "to hook"), were Mexican individuals hired by U.S. employers as labour recruiters. Enganchadores would persuade Mexican peasants to travel on the railway in acceptance of American jobs. The enganche system was not a novelty in Mexico. It had been established to recruit southern peasants for work in northern industries within the country. Companies in the United States effectively used the system to satisfy their labour needs. It can be argued that enganchadores are an ancestor of the modern-day coyote. Like today's coyotes, they acted as middlemen between migrants and the United States.
Explicit restrictions on Mexican immigration during the late 1910s and early 1920s caused U.S. labour-seeking migrants to increasingly rely on middlemen for labour-brokerage with American companies.
Labour-brokerage coyote: 1917–42
The U.S. Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 required foreign individuals crossing the border to take literacy tests, undergo medical exams, and pay head taxes and visa fees. The new requirements "combined with the creation of the Border Patrol in 1924, prompted thousands of Mexican migrants to cross the Rio Bravo surreptitiously to enter the country." As a direct result, demand for coyotes grew exponentially. The U.S. Commissioner of Immigration observed the trend commenting, in a Congressional report, that a "new and thriving industry... having for its object the illegal introduction into the United States of Mexican aliens on a wholesale scale by means of organized efforts" had emerged.
Ciudad Juarez became a hub for coyotes during the mid-1920s. In his study on Mexican migration, anthropologist Manuel Gamio details the process. Coyote fees were considerably less than those needed for visitor's visas; an approximate $100 to $150 difference (based on today's exchange rate). Working individually, or with others, a coyote would lead his client across the Rio Bravo via automobile, boat, or by swimming. Crossings were widely successful as Gamio notes: “These people know their ground thoroughly... and sometimes even have an arrangement with some district official.” The prevalent use of false documents, or "leased" legitimate documents, contributed to the success.
Increased restrictions on migrants, including ones from Mexico into the U.S. were primarily starting to be put into place in the 1920s, although there was not a national quota restricting Western Hemisphere immigrants until 1965. Increasing restrictions caused the demand for cheap migrant labour to exceed the legal ability for foreign workers to enter and work in the country. The conflict between the Nativist demand for restrictions and the many business owners who wanted less expensive labour, lead to a demand for unauthorized persons to be brought into the country. This led to an economic draw for desperate people to illegally enter as well as reasons for employers in the U.S. to use and support illegal methods to get more migrants into the country illegally to have more workers than the quota allows for. Therefore, both groups required the help of guides to get migrants into America, requiring the help of the coyotes and similar groups.
Upon arrival in the United States, coyotes were paid their fees and migrants were delivered to their employers. Competition for Mexican workers grew so high among labour contractors that it inspired a short-lived coyote system in the United States. For a fee, "man-snatchers" would kidnap Mexican workers from one company and deliver them to a competing firm. The threat of losing money, on account of a stolen employee, "led labour contractors to keep workers en-route to employers locked up and under armed guard to prevent their theft."
Labour-brokerage coyotes continued to profit despite the Great Depression. Demand in Texas for cotton harvesters through the use of coyotes allowed them to recruit about 400,000 migratory workers by the end of the 1930s, two-thirds of which were Mexican. Coyotes would load trucks with fifty to sixty workers to be delivered to different Texas companies. The practice received international attention in 1940 when a "delivery" truck got into an accident, resulting in forty-four Mexican migrant injuries and twenty-nine fatalities, including eleven children. The U.S. and Mexican governments worked together to end labour-brokerage coyote, by implementing the Bracero Program in 1942.
The Bracero Program: 1942–65
The popularity of the Bracero Program resulted in a greater Mexican demand for guest-worker contracts than there were contracts to give. Consequently, thousands of Mexican laborers unable to participate in the program sought the help of coyotes to enter the United States. "Clandestine-crossing" coyote saw a rise during this period.
By 1950, the United States Border Patrol relied on approximately 1,000 agents to patrol the border. Mexican migrants seeking entry relied on the coyote. Crossing the Rio Grande became the route of choice. This was achieved mostly by boat with the help of a patero (boatman), or more dangerously, by swimming, thus creating the slur "wetbacks.”
In 1953, Border Patrol reported to have detained 1,545 "alien smugglers" along the border. The end of the Bracero Program would lead to greater illegal crossings.
Clandestine-crossing coyote: 1965–86
The Hart-Celler Act, passed in 1965, set strict quotas on the number of annual visas it issued. More than ever before, Mexican workers in search of American jobs were dependent on the coyote system to accomplish their goals. A study reports that, by the 1980s, "do-it-yourself" border crossings were rare and "virtually everyone" was paying a coyote. The coyote industry's prosperity garnered the attention of the U.S. and Mexican governments. U.S. authorities continued to expand the Border Patrol, while the Mexican government enacted laws penalizing individuals convicted of aiding illegal entry into the United States.
Coyote strategies evolved during this period. Some Mexican cities witnessed the emergence or growth of smuggling rings. Larger organizations had expansive networks with contacts across Latin America. Several of these rings were capable of moving an estimated eight to ten thousand migrants into the United States annually. The use of tractor-trailers to carry passengers across national lines proved to be extremely effective. Hidden compartments were built in the floors of truck beds to hide "cargo." Furthermore, coyote leaders strategically chose juveniles as drivers or guides, so as not to be tried in the United States if caught. That way they could then be recycled into the system.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA): 1986–93
The IRCA was passed in 1986 under the Reagan administration. It created an amnesty program allowing currently undocumented immigrants the opportunity to legalize their status in the United States and eventually obtain citizenship, and established employer sanctions against individuals hiring undocumented workers. To obtain amnesty, migrants had to demonstrate they had been continuously living in the United States since 1982. Documents of proof included "pay stubs, rent receipts, bank statements, and affidavits from persons who knew them during the period they had resided illegally."
The IRCA also required employers to ask potential employees for documents confirming their authorization to work in the United States as a result of both provisions, a black market of counterfeit documents emerged catering to the demand. Shortly after, the media covered numerous stories revealing a coyote network of document falsification. The Houston Chronicle reported that "flea markets, grocery store lots, even the more secluded corners of Hispanic restaurants, are increasingly the scenes of blatant wheeling and dealing of phony documents at premium prices."Lori Rodriguez (March 23, 1987) "Employers, Illegal Aliens Trapped in a Dilemma." Houston Chronicle.
Present-day strategies
Different roles of coyotes
Since the practice of human smuggling is a financially growing sector, many people want to participate in the business. To guarantee a successful journey for the immigrants, human smugglers have created an organized hierarchy of coyotes playing various roles. Demand for their services increased due to the U.S. implementing stricter laws and patrolling the border. Each role plays a part in the process of transporting immigrants.
The lowest position in the human smuggling hierarchy is the vaquetón. While the human smuggling organizations are headquartered at the border, vaquetones are assigned to recruit migrants within their communities at the interior of the country. After vaquetones recruit a busload of immigrants eager to cross the border, migrants are placed in hotels near the border, waiting patiently for a coyote to signal an opportunity to cross the border. As the coyotes are the primary means in getting immigrants across the border, they use nicknames to avoid being identified. Being responsible for guiding the immigrants to the border safely, human smugglers have kept up to date with the border patrol's new technologies, monitoring their surveillance activity, aware of border patrol shift schedules and their stations.
Another important role in the human smuggling hierarchy is the chequador. The chequadores work for the coyotes and the coyotes’ assistants, keeping an eye out at checkpoints and border patrol areas enabling them to signal for a safe crossing. They are provided with the same quality equipment as the border patrol agents, such as night-vision scopes, and consistently use their cell phones or two-way radios to track patrol movements. To make the chequadores’ job less suspicious, they often rent a room near the border and set up telescopes to have a better view.
Cuidandonos are also known as caretakers. Most are American children that are hired from local high schools who, if caught, will receive a less severe punishment. They distract border patrol agents by throwing rocks at them, or by removing tire spikes set on suspected transport routes while immigrants cross the border. After successfully crossing the border, immigrants are transported to a load house (safe house), usually located at the nearest large city.