Border Patrol says teenagers not prosecuted
August 30, 2005
Mexicali News
The Rise of the "Chiquipollos"
Young, fearless and relatively untouched by the law, teenagers aged 14-17 are
increasingly employed as human traffickers. Dubbed "chiquipollos," the
adolescents contract border crossers, collect payments and move people across
the US border. Pablo Jesus Arnaud Carreno, the Mexican consul in Calexico,
California, estimated about 150 youths in the Mexicali region belong to human
trafficking organizations. The diplomat said a "very grave" situation posed
risks to young people involved with highly-organized bands. According to
Arnaud, 810 minors have been deported so far this year at the Mexicali-Calexico
border crossing. At least 10 percent of the deportees were acting as immigrant
smugglers, or coyotes, before they were detained, Arnaud said.
Like communities in the interior of Mexico where migrating to the U.S. is a
tradition, some neighborhoods of Mexicali are on the verge of establishing
themselves as traditional purveyors of new coyotes. For instance, the low-
income Mexicali colonias of Robledo, El Roble, Hidalgo, Pueblo Nuevo, and Baja
California are prime recruiting grounds for new coyotes, including the sons of
gang members who follow in the outlaw footsteps of their fathers.
"In the different operations we have carried out in (Robledo), we have realized
there are 150 minors who are sons of ex-gang members," said Mexicali Municipal
Police Chief Javier Salas Espinoza. "They get married, form families, teach
their children to break the law, and protect them in case they are detained."
Other youths employed by the human trafficking networks are drawn from the
ranks of Mexico's ubiquitous street children. Miguel Angel Hernandez, the
spokesman for the United States Border Patrol in Calexico, said older human
traffickers use the teenagers with the knowledge that minors won't be
prosecuted in the United States, despite multiple violations. "The only thing
that we do is bring them to the Mexican consulate for voluntary deportation to
their country. They take advantage of the laws in this (country) that they
can't be tried as adults," Hernandez said.
Ruth Hernandez Martinez, a Mexican federal deputy and the secretary of the
Population, Border and Migratory Affairs Commission of the Mexican Congress,
warned that the growing participation of minors in human trafficking activities
signaled a further breakdown of the law on the border, and complicated the task
of finding the heads of trafficking organizations because of the layer of
insulation provided by teenage coyotes.
Sources: El Universal, August 30, 2005. Article by Julieta Martinez. El
Universal, August 29, 2005. Articles by Rosa Maria Mendez.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border
news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico
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