For years, illegal immigrants have worked in the U.S. for seasons at a time and then returned home.  Now, with increased border patrols near major cities on the Southwestern border, the desert between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora has become the means for illegal migration.  Last summer, one immigrant per day died using this route while trying to illegally enter the U.S.

Because parents illegally living in the U.S. are now finding it difficult to travel back and forth over the border, an increasing number of Mexican children traveling without their families have been caught by both American and Mexican border agents.  Parents have discovered that they cannot afford the risks and expense of returning to Mexico for their children.  They must choose to either allow others to raise their children or hire smugglers to bring their children into the U.S.

Many parents are willing to take the risk of having smugglers bring their children over the border.  Parents reason that if they leave their children behind, they will lose them because of the distance.  They believe that the benefits of having their children smuggled outweigh the high cost of smuggling and the risks of losing their children in the desert or being caught by border patrols.

Through the end of September, Mexican authorities repatriated over 9,800 unaccompanied Mexican children under age seventeen who were caught illegally crossing the border.  The number of children under age thirteen who were repatriated rose to over 1,500 by the end of September.  Officials attribute the increase in the number of children attempting to cross the border to the success of a large number of illegal immigrants who cross the border each year. 

Unaccompanied minors who are caught attempting to cross the border are taken to a child welfare shelter, and the shelter notifies a family member where the children are located.  However, authorities in both Mexico and the U.S. say that parents try to go around the system.  Parents call the shelters promising to send their children back to their homes in Mexico, but when the children are released, their parents allow smugglers to make another attempt at crossing the border.

Officials say they have arrested many women on charges of smuggling children.  These women are typically American citizens or Mexicans with legal status in the U.S. who can easily cross the border, and who are looking to make easy money.

Smugglers usually try to avoid border patrols by crossing through deserts.  However, smugglers with children often must drive or walk though border checkpoints crowded with border and customs officials.  The smugglers carry legal papers belonging to other children in order persuade officials that their charges are relatives.

Many of the smugglers are linked to chains of human traffickers that go from Mexico and into Latin America.  Smuggled children have told officials that they traveled with several different strangers on their journey across the border.  Parents of smuggled children report paying $2,000 to smuggle a child from Mexico to $7,000 to bring children from Central America.  Mexican officials have caught over 2,900 minors from Central America who were traveling with smugglers.