Atlas of Hispanic-American History

the border. The clients then crossed the

border on foot and rendezvoused with a

partner of the coyote at a prearranged

spot, from which they would be driven to

a city.

Since such operations were by neces-

sity unregulated, clients put their lives on

the line each time they trusted a coyote.

More than once, they were abandoned to

die of thirst in the desert or left confined

in a vehicle. In Texas in 1987, 18 undoc-

umented aliens were discovered by the

Border Patrol locked in a boxcar, where

they had suffocated to death.

The rising tide of immigration

resulted in part from worsening econom-

ic conditions in Mexico. Inflation, unem-

ployment, and foreign debt rose in

Mexico in the 1970s, and declining oil

prices in the 1980s damaged Mexico’s

ability to repay debt. The currency was

devalued and capital fled the country.

Mexico required an emergency loan from

the United States in 1982 to salvage its

economy, and in 1995 a currency crisis

was resolved only by a bailout package

from the United States and the

International Monetary Fund.

According to many economists,

Mexico’s financial trouble stemmed from

its emphasis on nationalization and gov-

ernment economic control that dated to

the Mexican Revolution. During the

1980s and 1990s, Mexico tried to improve

its economic outlook by cutting govern-

ment spending and adopting policies of

liberalization and privatization. In 1994,

in the hope of attracting jobs and foreign

investment, Mexico joined Canada and

the United States in signing the contro-

versial North American Free Trade

Agreement (NAFTA), which eliminated

most trade barriers among the three

countries.

Reduced protection of state indus-

tries and cuts in social programs only

made things worse for some Mexicans,

adding to the rising social tensions. In

1994 a guerrilla uprising of poor Native

Americans who called themselves the

198 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY

2.1 million

overstays

3.9 million

border

crossings

Estimated Illegal Immigrants from Latin America in the United States, 1996

The numbers in the map above indicate amounts of people (by country) who illegally immigrated to the United States in 1996.

NAFTA will cause a giant

sucking sound as jobs go

south.

—Ross Perot, Independent
candidate for President, 1992