Matamoros, Mexico: Drug Cartels Use Migrants at U.S.-Mexican Border

La Prensa reported on May 20, 2013 that migrants along the U.S.-Mexican border are being used by the cartels for various purposes. One evening Gulf Cartel gunmen stormed a refugee center and captured 15 men, who were probably forced to serve as guards or mules for the criminal organization. The current U.S. immigration system designed to curb illegal immigration is leaving migrants vulnerable to the cartels who are making profits off the migrants by using them for forced labor, and both drug and human trafficking. Despite this, migrants still are willing to pay the cartels’ demands for a chance to reach the United States. The “coyotes” who smuggle the migrants are also forced to pay the cartels for every person delivered over the border. Failure to pay, or any attempt at crossing the border along are punished violently. Read Article