Smugglers thrive with crackdown on Mexican border
TIJUANA, Mexico -- As Mexico enters its second year of crushing recession, at least one industry is thriving: the smuggling of illegal immigrants into the U.S.</br></br>Here on the mean back streets of this border town, coyotes, as smugglers are known, lurk everywhere, pitching their services to the growing numbers of Mexicans looking to sneak across the international boundary. Ironically, the smugglers' biggest enemy, the U.S. Border Patrol, is also their biggest ally these days: A U.S. crackdown along its once-porous, 2,000-mile border has made the journey so difficult that more crossers are seeking expert help.</br></br>"This border is no longer a cakewalk," says San Diego U.S. Attorney Alan Bersin, who was appointed law-enforcement "border czar" last year by President Clinton. "That's put a premium on the sophisticated smuggler."</br></br>In the San Diego area, the world's busiest border crossing, prosecutions of smugglers tripled last year to 74. Already in the first quarter of 1996, 68 alleged smugglers have been caught in the legal net. According to border authorities, between 45% and 80% of those who enter illegally are using coyotes, almost twice the rate of previous years. The cost has jumped, too. A simple trip to Los Angeles can now cost between $400 and $600, compared with $300 two years ago.</br></br>"The price has gone up because of all the Border Patrol agents," says one smuggler in Tijuana, who declines to be identified. As he nurses a quart of expensive scotch, he adds that the journey to Los Angeles now leads "through some incredible mountains with bears and deer."