A nineteen-year-old makes the dangerous journey to the U.S.
At the time of our interview Juan was twenty-one years old. He had been in the United States for only a month, and he had not yet recovered from his traumatizing journey. Juan is Leonardo’s oldest son.
Juan had a very comfortable childhood. In Mexico, he lived in a modern apartment that was owned by his mother. His mother did not work and dedicated herself to taking care of her three children. Juan is very close to his mother. Juan’s father regularly sent money from the U.S. where he had been since Juan was seven years old. He briefly came back when Juan was eleven, but quickly returned, so Juan effectively grew up without a father.
Juan had enough money to pursue a technical education after high school. He was studying cooking and restaurant management. However, he only completed one year of the four-year course. He said that he left school because of bad influences, bad decisions, and bad behavior. With his limited training he was able to get a job as a cook in a local restaurant making MXN 1,500 ($72 USD) a week. He was simply not making enough money to get ahead, so he asked his father to help him come to the United States.
He found a coyote recommended by a family member, and he and a cousin started their journey. They traveled from his hometown to Acamby, and then boarded a bus that was chartered by a group of coyotes. To make the journey safely it is critical to travel with a relative or friend who you can rely on and also to travel with a large group to the border. They paid MXN 5,000 ($250 USD) for the bus trip and bribes along the way. When asked for a bribe he simply paid. He explained, “The police in Mexico can do whatever they want. It is so bad that if people are killed, they don’t even mention it, as if the person was a just like a little animal.” After they arrived at Piedras Negras they were taken to a safe location near the border, for which they had to pay a fee of MXN 23,000 ($1,150 USD).
However, at this point things started to go wrong. The coyote was drinking and doing drugs, and he kept delaying the day that they would cross the border. Finally, the night came for them to cross the river. There were 35 people in his group. The main coyote, four assistants, and 30 migrants. Within an hour he lost sight of the main coyote, who appeared to have abandoned the group. The four assistants that where left treated the group badly. They screamed and verbally abused them. Then the four assistants abruptly left. They took only two individuals with them and told the larger group not to follow. A short time later U.S. Border Patrol Agents arrived. Juan believes that the main group was used as a distraction, and the intention all along was just to ensure that the two individuals successfully crossed the border.
The U.S. Border Patrol Agents descended on them with three small trucks, four motorcycles and drones. They were actually very polite. They asked the people not to run or anything because they did not want to be aggressive. They took them to a processing center. They took their photos, their fingerprints, copies of their credentials, and then they bussed them back to Mexico. Juan and his friend were back in Mexico, less than 24 hours after they left, so Juan and his cousin said, “Okay, let’s go to a hotel and tomorrow we will try again.” They did not want to go back to their hometown because they had already borrowed money from their families for the trip to the border and the first fees. This loan could not be realistically repaid if they remained in Mexico.
They had the option to go back to the same safe location near the border and try again, as part of a guarantee scheme offered by the narcos. Individuals pay an initial fee and then can use the safe location near the border multiple times until they succeed. For subsequent stays the fee is reduced in price. The narcos register each migrant, so they know if they had previously paid the required fee. “They make it easier the second time.”
However, Juan no longer had any confidence in the coyote, so he decided to try to find another at the bus terminal in Piedras Negras. It is dangerous for immigrants to wander around the bus terminals at the border. A man approached Juan and attempted to get him to go with him outside the terminal both by first trying to trick him and then by menacing him. Juan was able to get away and go to a security guard, and the individual who was evidently trying to kidnap him left him alone. Later Juan saw the individual who approached him talking to the driver of the bus that had taken Juan from Acamby to Piedras Negras. It appears that the bus driver had fingered him as somebody that would be a good kidnapping target, because they could get money that his family had set aside to pay a coyote after he crossed successfully. If families have money to pay a coyote for a successful crossing, they have money to pay for ransom.
Juan and his cousin found a new coyote. She was a woman about 35 to 40 years old. She was more expensive than the previous coyote. Each of them had to pay a new fee of MXN 40,000 ($2,000 USD) and then pay MXN 150,000 ($7,500 USD) should they be able to successfully cross. They were bused from Piedras Negras to Naco on the Arizona border.
This crossing was easier. At night they climbed a fence using ladders. They then ran for three miles. They had to run because they were being seen on cameras, and they had to get to a safe house before the US Border Patrol arrived. They then hid for a day in a trailer located in a trailer park. They were then picked up by a truck at night and driven to a safe house in Phoenix where they stayed for one more day until the coyote received payment. Finally, for an additional $500 each, they were driven in a private car to New York. Juan arrived at his father’s house physically exhausted, mentally shaken, and over $11,000 in debt.
As soon as he feels fit, Juan will start working as a cook. He doesn’t know how much he will make, but it will be much more than in Mexico. His father and his uncles paid for the trip, and he needs to repay them eventually. He will repay the loan, but his family has indicated that he does not have a deadline, and he will not be charged interest.
Juan only wants to be in the U.S. for a maximum of six years, which he thinks will be enough time for him to save the money he needs to open his own restaurant in Mexico. He knows that everyone says that they will return, but he feels that he really will return because he has a son. His son is three years old. He had his son when he was seventeen. The mother was only fourteen and her parents did not approve of Juan, and they made them break up. The child no longer lives with his mother. His mother has another child with a new man, and this man did not want to raise another man’s child, so she gave her first born to her own mother to raise.
Juan wants to go back to Mexico to claim his son. He grew up without a father. He does not want his own son to grow up without both a mother and a father.