How do people in Mexico get the 1,500 to $2,000 to be smuggled into the country?

Question

Two truckers were arrested and a "drop house" was raided in immigrant smuggling cases in the El Paso area this week, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said on Friday.
On Wednesday morning, the Border Enforcement Security Task Force, or BEST, stopped two 18-wheelers on Interstate 10 near Vado after agents spotted the drivers letting two men into one cab and another man into the other cab at a truck stop, ICE spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said.

The three immigrants, found hiding in the sleeper sections, told investigators they each paid $1,800 to be smuggled to Los Angeles. Truck drivers Julio Cesar Cazabal Gutierrez, 34, and Javier Nolasco Sanchez, 26, were arrested on charges of conspiracy to transport undocumented aliens, which is punishable by up to five years in prison.

On Tuesday, ICE agents discovered 16 immigrants in an apartment in the 1100 block of Seventh Street in El Paso's Segundo Barrio, officials said. Agents arrested alleged smugglers Iris Guereca, 20, of El Paso, and Rene Raul Taylor Lopez, 20,
and Francisco Alejandro Lopez Vasquez, 21, who are Mexican citizens in the U.S. illegally.
The immigrants were from the Mexico City area and paid $1,500 to $2,000 to be taken to California, Wisconsin and other states, officials said.

Most of the immigrants were returned to Mexico.

It would seem if they are able to come up with thousands of dollars it would seem they could open up a Small Business

Answer 1

Good question and do I have an answer for you . Seems my daughter's ex in-laws were loaned the money from the Catholic Church to come into the US on a plane , mind you .
They even had a job lined up at Swift Meat Packing Plant and they were illegal !!!!!
Can you beat that ?

Answer 2

Thats cheap. I heard it cost $30,000 from asia, but there is a lot of transportation cost and its a lot harder. The snakeheads who illegally bring Chinese to New York get the money from the family. They all pitch in. THe theory is , as soon as the family member is in the US, they would send even more back to China. SOme of the $30,000 is payed at a latter time. The Snakehead usually has a job lines up and take a piece of the pay check. I would believe the same applied to Mexico. Family all pitch in and a peace of the paycheck in a latter time.

Answer 3

They can work and save up their money, usually their life savings, or they can borrow money and that's how they become slaves (to their lenders), or as another user said before, their relatives can send them money.

More important questions are why do they do this? What drove them to leave their homes behind, risking arrest, possible violence from their smugglers, and discrimination from American citizens?

Answer 4

well, a lot of people think that they are all mexican but in fact a lot of the people who cross the border arent from mexico but from latin america. everybody call them mexican but they are not!!! they get the money from their savings, besides not everybody comes here for money. A lot of them come because their family is here.

Answer 5

Couple of ways either they spend half their lives saving meagre wages in mexico, family in america sends it or best yet they travel in agreement to work for the people who smuggle them for free of course by work i mean sweatshop

Answer 6

Because, as the proverb goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention." The meaning of this proverb is that if someone really needs something or has a problem, he/she will find a way of doing or solving it.

BTW, human smuggling is severely punished in El Paso, I do hope these smugglers serve there time....

Answer 7

Those rates are cheap, maybe they got a discount, the coyotes in Tijuana charge a minimum of 2500...

Answer 8

their family who is already here pays and they may have gotten here by "friends" that help these people then the coyotes smuggle and do the dirty work

Answer 9

i have wondered the same thing myself. the only thing i can figure is the ones who is here is sending the money to them to come.

Answer 10

hahaha you are so clueless arent you. you can read the newspaper but you willnever no how hard life is for illegal immigrants. you will never no how it is to walk miles across desert, be hidden in different cars and homes not knowing who ur with. read "The Devil's Highway" by Luis Alberto Urrea. then you will have some understanding on what the life of an immigrant really is. do you no how long it takes for them to save up that money? and opening up a small business sounds so eay doesnt it?not in mexico! i feel sorry for you. not to insult for or ne thing. but its amazing how secluded americans really are.