Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

Migrant smuggling in San Diego
San Diego, California, sits on the busiest border crossing in the United States with Mexico.
On average, San Diego processes border crossings of 40,000 vehicles, 25,000 pedestrians,
and 200 buses daily; and one in every six persons entering the United States does so either
through the San Ysidro or Otay Mesa ports of entry. With a population close to 3 million,
San Diego County resembles other large metropolitan areas with established immigrant
communities and economic infrastructure adept at absorbing large numbers of legal and
unauthorized immigrants.
San Diego’s vibrant and expanding agricultural and horticultural businesses are labourintensive
and highly dependent on migrant labourers, most of whom are from Mexico.
There are about 124,000 unauthorized Mexicans in San Diego’s labour force (Zhang, 2012).
In a survey of 112 employers in San Diego County in the mid-1990s, Cornelius (1998) found
high levels of reliance on immigrant labour throughout the San Diego economy. Migrant
workers made up 92 per cent in agriculture and food processing. One out of five firms in the
study reported that more than 90 per cent of its local workforce consists of immigrants, and
1 out of 10 admitted that they have a 100 per cent foreign-born labour force.
Various attempts have been made by human smugglers to transport unauthorized migrants
into the United States through this busy port of entry. Strategies to smuggle unauthorized
migrants through San Diego can be grouped into two main categories: (1) concealment; and
(2) false identity papers (Zhang, 2007). Concealment is a common strategy but oftentimes
involves clever ways of hiding migrants inside various cavities of a vehicle or commercial
merchandise. Identity papers are also used frequently by smugglers to send clients through
the checkpoints.
In the past two decades, San Diego County has become an important destination or lengthy
way station for migrants, particularly following the 9/11 events (Zhang et al., 2014). By
staying close to the border area, unauthorized migrants can reenter the United States faster
should they be deported. It is well known in this region that, when detained by immigration
officials, most unauthorized migrants claim to be residents of Mexicali or Tijuana, which
border with San Diego, so they are less likely to be deported into the interiors of Mexico
or Central American countries, and can make it back to the United States quickly. This has
become an important migration strategy particularly when many migrants have endured
untold hardships, including kidnapping, raping, beatings and robbing during their journey
towards Mexico’s northern border. Border securitization did not just begin after the 9/11
events. Since 1993, the Government of the United States has stepped up its efforts to reduce
the flow of unauthorized entry from Mexico through hardening its border fences, resulting
in significant increase in organized smuggling activities, costs of border crossing, as well as
deaths and abuses along the United States southern border (Cornelius and Lewis, 2007).
Overview of data on migrant smuggling
Believe it or not, for a country with such a long history of irregular
migration, there are no publicly available data on migrant smuggling in the
United States. The closest data are probably the official statistics on the number
of unauthorized migrants who are apprehended at the borders with Mexico
or Canada. While immigration officials along the United States–Mexico border
routinely collect the country origins of apprehended migrants, transportation
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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