Rumors, Encounters, Collaborations, and Survival: The Migrant Smuggling–Drug Trafficking Nexus in the U.S. Southwest

2018 ◽  
Vol 676 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella E. Sanchez ◽  
Sheldon X. Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Migrant Smuggling ◽  
Criminal Intent ◽  
Migration Corridor ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
The U.S

The violence afflicting the Mexican migration corridor has often been explained as resulting from the brutal takeover of migrant smuggling markets by organized crime, specifically Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). Through the testimonies of twenty-eight migrants who traveled with smuggling facilitators on their journeys into the United States and who interacted with drug traffickers during their transit, we argue that the metamorphosis taking place may be even more radical, involving the proliferation of actors with little or no criminal intent to operate along the migration trails. Far from market coalescence, the increasing flattening of criminal markets along the migration trail and the proliferation of individuals struggling to survive is the result of increasingly limited paths toward mobility and is not attributable to feared cartels or traficantes alone. The interactions among clandestine actors are not only likely to become more common but also to reflect flexibility and adaptation that hierarchical DTOs cannot explain.

scholarly journals How Representative Are Snowball Samples? Using the Ethnosurvey to Study Guatemala-U.S. Migration

2016 ◽  
Vol 666 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
David P. Lindstrom
Keyword(s):  
Rhode Island ◽  
Composite Index ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Background Characteristics ◽  
Household Location ◽  
Sample Weighting ◽  
Migrant Integration ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This analysis draws on binational data from an ethnosurvey conducted in Guatemala and in the United States in Providence, Rhode Island, to develop a refinement of the weighting scheme that the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) uses. The alternative weighting procedure distinguishes between temporary and settled migrants by using a question on household location in the Guatemala questionnaire that is not used in the MMP. Demographic characteristics and integration experiences of the most recent U.S. trip are used to assess the composition and representativeness of the U.S. sample. Using a composite index of migrant integration to compare the impact of alternative U.S. sample weights on point estimates, I find that although the U.S. sample is broadly representative across a range of background characteristics, the MMP sample weighting procedure biases estimates of migrant integration downward.

scholarly journals Cuba, United States and fight against drug trafficking: ups and downs of a necessary cooperation

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
Santiago E. Bejerano
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
Modern World ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Common Security

Given the geostrategic importance of Cuba for the entire American continent and the increasing complexity of the nature of security as such, and accordingly, of the mechanisms of ensuring it in the modern world, the problem of drug trafficking is rather high on the agenda of the U.S.-Cuban relations. The article examines the issue of combating drug trafficking in the context of bilateral relations between Cuba and the United States in order to assess the prospects for joint efforts on this track. The author presents a retrospective of mostly unilateral initiatives by U.S. presidents that did not lead to real tangible results, in particular due to the prevailing erroneous approach of militarization in the fight against drug trafficking. The new century requires new forms and a qualitatively higher level of interaction. With a noticeable warming in the dialogue with Cuba under Barack Obama the situation has changed in many respects, and quite a few initiatives of bilateral nature began to bear fruit. Nevertheless, with Donald Trump’s rise to power, there is an obvious setback in the rapprochement, in proof of which the author gives examples of specific destructive steps, although this position of the administration met if not open criticism, then proposals for alternative scenarios of the development of contacts between the states. The potential that exists in both countries for cooperation in this area can be realized provided that the interests of common security prevail over political disagreements and state channels of cooperation are strengthened, with the dynamics of this process being reflected in the situation in the region as a whole.

Research on Upper Level Drug Trafficking: A Review

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 827-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Desroches
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Friendship Networks ◽  
Drug Markets ◽  
Niche Markets ◽  
Low Profile ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
The Uk

This article examines research on upper level drug traffickers in the U.S., the UK, Canada, and the Netherlands. Included is an analysis and critique of typologies of drug traffickers and theoretical models of organized crime as they apply to upper level drug networks. Studies of higher level drug trafficking indicate that drug markets represent informal and loosely organized associations of relatively small syndicates or crews of independent drug entrepreneurs. They compete for market share and deal primarily or exclusively with trusted associates chosen from ethnic, kinship, and friendship networks. Most dealers are highly cautious, eschew the use of violence, typically make huge profits, attempt to maintain a low profile, rationalize their conduct as business activity, and operate within geographically niche markets.

scholarly journals Understanding of Mexican Migration to the United States: Rifts and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Basam Khan ◽  
◽  
Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti ◽  
Ghulam Mustafa ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Paso ◽  
Rio Grande ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Social Defense ◽  
Basic Segment ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
The U.S

It has been decades since legislative issues have thought about social, defense, and compassionate issues of migration which has become a touchstone in U.S strategy discussion. Mexican migration to the U.S started in 1848. It has proceeded to the present with no critical interference, something that makes this work movement very particular as a basic segment of the American work advertise. Generally started with enormous development, driven by starvation, political problems, open doors in the U.S; that point eased back, tightened, or unexpectedly finished, from 1850 to 1882, similar to the case of the Chinese. The details show that Mexico is a key source of settlers in U.S and has long been a major source of enemy contact with refugees, but so many have been focusing on Mexico and not the other countries which have also become major sources of illegal immigrants. The United States and Mexico are bordered with California, San Diego, and Baja California, Tijuana, and the Pacific Ocean. The boundary stretches eastward to El Paso, Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, Texas, on the Rio Grande. From that point the border continues south-east along the Rio Grande River until the end of it in the Gulf of Mexico. Border stretching of over 1945 miles is insufficiently regulated. Only old solid markers, rusty safety clasp and spoiled dry fence posts can be found in many parts of the place, and the river Grande that over the centuries has continuously changed its course separating both nations. U.S endeavors to control passages and exit adequately have been focused principally along the most profoundly dealt transit courses driving to north. U.S. powerlessness to control all the Mexican boundary has proven that any Mexican involved in operating in the U.S seldom discovers that the frontier is an unlikely trap Through the span of the most recent 170 years, Mexican migrants have to a great extent worked in horticulture, farming, mining, and railroad development.

Migratory Movements between Mexico and the United States, 1880–1934

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alanís Enciso Fernando Saúl ◽  
Russ Davidson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War I ◽  
Mexican Immigrants ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Immigration ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Communal Lands ◽  
Migratory Movements ◽  
The U.S

This chapter presents an overview of the flow of Mexican immigration to the United States between the years of 1880 and 1934. It notes that two main factors were responsible for the influx of Mexican immigrants to the United States over this period of time, these being: 1) the expansion of the U.S. economy and integration of the southwestern states into the union, and 2) the difficult social and economic conditions that Mexico faced as a result of the expropriation of village communal lands and a decrease in wages on rural estates. This chapter also outlines the timeline of Mexican immigration throughout this period, from the late 19th to the middle of the 20th century, and analyses how momentous events, such as World War I and the Great Depression, spurred or deterred Mexican migration to the U.S., as well as the Mexican government’s various attempts to both encourage and curb repatriation.

Migrant Smuggling on Mexico’s Gulf Route: The Actors Involved

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 16-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simón Pedro Izcara Palacios
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Cheap Labor ◽  
Migrant Smuggling ◽  
Los Grupos ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Shed Light

Migrant flows crossing Mexican territory into the United States along the Gulf route are mainly driven by a demand for cheap labor. The decrease in the number of migrants wishing to cross the border to escape the violence in Mexico has turned undocumented migrants into a rare and valuable commodity. The increasing costs of migrant smuggling as a result of organized crime and the activities of the immigration authorities have prompted employers to finance this activity to ensure that they receive enough workers. In-depth interviews with 70 migrant smugglers shed light on the function and participation of the different actors involved in migrant smuggling. El flujo migratorio que atraviesa el territorio mexicano a través de la ruta del golfo para llegar a los Estados Unidos aparece impulsado principalmente por la demanda de mano de obra barata. El descenso del número de personas dispuestas a cruzar la frontera debido a la violencia que ha afectado a México ha convertido a los indocumentados en una mercancía escasa y valiosa. El incremento de los costes de esta actividad debido a la incursión de los grupos delictivos y las autoridades migratorias ha hecho que los empleadores hayan tenido que financiar el tráfico de migrantes para abastecerse de mano de obra. Entrevistas en profundidad a setenta polleros arrojan luz sobre la función y participación de los diferentes actores involucrados en el tráfico de migrantes.

scholarly journals Visas, Jokes, and Contraband: Citizenship and Sovereignty at the Mexico–U.S. Border

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rihan Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
State Recognition ◽  
Authentic Identity ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
Popular Ballads ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Middle Class People

AbstractThis article explores citizenship and sovereignty at the Mexico–U.S. border through jokes told about and around checkpoint encounters—most centrally, those staged at the main port of entry connecting Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California. In Tijuana, I argue, U.S. state recognition validates the proper, middle-class citizenship of Mexicans resident in Mexico. Attitudes towards the United States, however, remain ambivalent. I begin by exploring the checkpoint jokes of drug-traffickers as represented in severalnarcocorridos(popular ballads about drug-trafficking). Though this music is disapproved of by most people invested in U.S. state recognition, I show next how middle-class jokes build on the trope of the trickster-trafficker to parry state interpellation. The jokes work as performative arguments where people begin to articulate the tensions that constitute citizenship and sovereignty at the border. Finally, I examine the consular interview for the U.S. Border Crossing Card, a key site knitting together U.S. and Mexican regimes of citizenship. Folk theories of how the interview works anticipate the jokes' bald thematization of duplicity, explaining why middle-class people would turn to jokes that frame them as traffickers. Understood in the context of the BCC interview, middle-class checkpoint jokes reveal Mexican citizenship as embedded in an international system organized not by principles of authentic identity, but by ambivalence, contradiction, and undecidability.

Banking on Remittances? How opening a bank account in the United States affects Mexican migrants sending money back to Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-190
Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Barrett ◽  
T. Elizabeth Durden
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Mexican Migration ◽  
Control Variables ◽  
Bank Account ◽  
Mexican Migrants ◽  
Mexican Community ◽  
The U.S

Data from 154 different Mexican communities, housed within the Mexican Migration Project (mmp), is used to explore the influence of U.S. assimilation on a Mexican migrant’s propensity to remit money back to Mexico. A migrant opening a U.S. bank account is employed as a proxy for assimilation. Sociodemographic, U.S. migration, and Mexican community control variables are included. It is found that a migrant opening a bank account during the last U.S. migration is associated with a reduced probability of remitting money back to Mexico, suggesting a shift in social and economic activity from Mexico to the U.S. for migrants abroad. Los datos de 154 comunidades mexicanas, agrupados en el Mexican Migration Project (mmp), se utilizan para explorar la influencia de la asimilación a Estados Unidos sobre los migrantes mexicanos, tomando en cuenta su propensión a enviar remesas de vuelta a México. La apertura de una cuenta bancaria en Estados Unidos por parte de un migrante se emplea como una forma subsidiaria de asimilación. Se incluyen variables sociodemográficas, de migración a Estados Unidos y de control de las comunidades mexicanas. Los hallazgos dicen que la apertura de una cuenta bancaria por parte de un migrante durante la última ola de migración a Estados Unidos se asocia a una menor probabilidad de enviar remesas de vuelta a México, lo cual sugiere un cambio en la actividad social y económica de México hacia Estados Unidos por parte de los migrantes en el extranjero.

scholarly journals The Merida Initiative and the Tort Claims Act: Human Rights Violations and Foreign Non-Contractual Civil Liability in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pastora Melgar Manzanilla ◽  
Daniel Márquez Gómez
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
Civil Liability ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Victim Protection ◽  
Alien Tort Statute ◽  
Tort Claims

This article discusses the possibility that Mexican victims of human rights violations may take advantage of the contents of the Alien Tort Claims Act to sue Mexican officials for extra-contractual civil liability in the event that they suffer damages derived from the use of firearms, technology, or otherwise, linked to the Merida Initiative. We analyze the Merida Initiative to Combat Illicit Narcotics and Reduce Organized Crime Authorization Act of 2008, and the Alien Tort Claims Act, also known as the Alien Tort Statute. We also refer to related Acts such as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Torture Victim Protection Act, as well as to cases that help to understand the scope and limitations of the Alien Tort Claims Act. We conclude that the Merida Initiative and the resources allocated under it have deepened human rights violations in Mexico, and that the Alien Tort Claims Act could be invoked by Mexicans victims of such violations and of the “war” against drug trafficking under the framework of the Merida Initiative.

Violence, Governance, and Economic Development at the U.S.-Mexico Border: The Case of Nuevo Laredo and Its Lessons

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 377-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freddy Mariñez Navarro ◽  
Leonardo Vivas
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Drug Trafficking ◽  
War On Drugs ◽  
Illegal Drug ◽  
Border City ◽  
Drug Trafficking Organizations ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Political Economy Analysis ◽  
Cartel Violence ◽  
The U.S

The paper seeks to make sense of the impacts and responses to the current war on drugs in Nuevo Laredo. In it, the impacts of Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) in Nuevo Laredo as well as prospects for recovery are examined from three perspectives: a political economy analysis of competitiveness in a border city; the specifics of illegal drug business in Mexico as compared to Colombia using Michael Porter's “Competitiveness Diamond”; and the strategies of local government to regain governance. The results are summarized in five theses about how Nuevo Laredo's international trade culture affects how they cope with cartel violence.

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