A War that Can’t Be Won: Binational Perspectives on the War on Drugs

7. Caught in the Middle: Undocumented Migrants’ Experiences with Drug Violence

193 Introduction The Arizona–Sonora section of the U.S.–Mexican border continues to be the most active sector for unauthorized border crossings and marijuana seizures.1 These two activities have historically coexisted peacefully without much overlap. The economic interests involved in human smuggling and drug trafficking were quite distinct for a long time, both maintaining separate trails through the desert as well as the different needs for smuggling human beings that need to eat, sleep, and breathe as opposed to a commodity such as a package of drugs (Spener 2009). However, during the Calderón administration (2006–2012), an unspoken tacit agreement between law enforcement officials and drug cartels was broken along the U.S.–Mexican border. As a result, drug-related violence skyrocketed in almost every major border city. A crackdown by Mexican officials with support from the United States in the form of funding, intelligence, and equipment created a chaotic scenario as different groups vied for power and control of the profitable drug routes that supply the unquenchable demand for narcotics north of the border. This violent competition, which often reduced profits from drugs, created the need for more income streams such as extortion, kidnapping, and migration (Stratfor 2008; Gibler 2011) and also led to accusations that the Mexican government actively supported some cartels over others (Osorno 2010; Gibler 2011). Even so, the debate surrounding the connection between drugs and migration has failed to produce any major insights because the question itself has chapter seven Caught in the Middle Undocumented Migrants’ Experiences with Drug Violence Jeremy Slack and Scott Whiteford 194 · Current Strategies and Casualties numerous pitfalls, such as the differing definitions of involvement. Are we talking about motive? Are we talking about willing versus coerced cooperation ? Or are we talking simply about some monolithic entity called a drug and migration cartel? In order to avoid this trap, we analyze the contact between people engaged in clandestine border crossing with drug trafficking and organized crime as a way to better understand the impact of recent violence in Mexico’s and the United States’ simultaneous wars on drugs and migration. We must address all these questions in order to discern the connections between drugs and migration. This chapter focuses on the new impacts of transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that formerly limited their activities to drugs but now focus on undocumented immigration from and through Mexico to the United States. Our work with people who have recently crossed through the Sonoran desert and have been apprehended by the Border Patrol and returned to Mexico2 produced surprising stories that show the impact of drugs on migration histories. These stories include instances of migrants being used as unwitting bait for the authorities in order for drug shipments to evade detection, kidnapping in drop houses used for the transport of drugs, and even personal experiences of smuggling drugs through the desert after unsuccessful migration attempts. The debate over the connection between drugs and migration reached a new height on June 25, 2010, when Arizona governor Jan Brewer made the accusation that the majority of migrants are involved with drug trafficking .3 While the vast majority of undocumented border crossers are not trafficking drugs, it is important to address why and how drugs and migration overlap, as well as the impacts of one phenomenon over the other. The new characteristics of clandestine border crossing put undocumented migrants in the middle of the larger geopolitical landscape of the wars on drugs, terrorism, and immigration along the border (Payan 2006). As they navigate their journey northward, economic migrants, defined as those who choose to move in search of a better economic life for themselves and their families, increasingly contend with increased violence and exposure to criminal actors, actively attempting not only to exploit their money but their labor as well. They must be wary of kidnappings and extortion, cartels searching to pressure desperate individuals into their employ, and diverse threats from freelance thugs often masquerading as guides and unaffiliated coyotes4 who are punished (along with those around them) for attempting to circumvent the monopolized control of the border. Caught in the Middle · 195 Tony Payan (2006) documents how U.S. border enforcement has conflated the “three border wars” against drugs, immigration, and terrorism. He meticulously outlines how border enforcement has come to deal with these three different phenomena with the same tactics. What is not discussed is the reaction of the clandestine border...