Illegal immigration in the United States is a very hot-button topic, even going so far
as to prompt President Trump's much-delayed plans to build a wall that separates the United
States from Mexico via the Southern border.
While the overall effectiveness of a wall is in question, data shows that illegal immigration
has decreased by 1 million over the last twelve years, though an exact figure of how many
people cross the border illegally each year can be difficult to ascertain- especially
with reputable sources.
Every year though, one million legal immigrants enter the United States, and of the 45 million
people who have entered the US in the last decade as temporary visitors, 1.17% of them
have overstayed their visas.
For people who cross the border illegally though, just how do they get here, and what
are some of the craziest ways people have attempted to cross the border and start a
new life in the US?
For any illegal immigrant crossing the border can be a daunting affair.
Typically the only real hope for crossing the southern American border is to do it through
the vast and remote wilderness stretches, as civilized areas feature strong fences with
various anti-climbing features.
The presence of law enforcement in the form of local police and border patrol agents can
also make attempting to cross the border illegally in a city very risky indeed, and typically
not worth the effort.
This leaves would-be illegal immigrants with crossing the border being the safest bet,
at least safe in terms of not being caught by law enforcement.
Large swathes of terrain exist where on both the Mexican and American sides there is nothing
but wilderness, and little to no fencing to deter border crossers.
Historically, illegal immigration was not seen as a serious enough issue to warrant
policing these remote stretches of desert, and the inhospitable terrain itself was often
a difficult enough challenge to deter an attempt to cross.
Illegal immigrants here face dangerous animals in the form of snakes, poisonous spiders,
and even roving coyotes, as well as blistering temperatures in the day time, and freezing
cold at night.
Usually immigrants have no land navigation training, and only know the general direction
of where civilization exists- this means that many get lost in an attempt to make their
way to a town or city, and the US Border Patrol regularly rescues hundreds of individuals
on the brink of death from the wilderness.
So what are some ways that people have attempted to cross the border illegally?
Junk in the Trunk
In 2015 US border enforcement agents in Arizona stopped two different cars for inspection.
At one checkpoint the agents discovered a man and a wounded female locked inside the
car's trunk, and given that Arizona was at the time experiencing a major heat wave, the
attempt was almost deadly for the two (use image from https://www.azfamily.com/authorities-in-arizona-find-migrants-locked-in-car-trunks/article_9836b463-f285-580e-a04c-08a1b608b2e5.html).
A few miles away, another car was stopped for inspection, but the driver put the pedal
to the metal and ran into a spike strip, which blew one of the car's tires.
The driver fled into the wilderness, but agents found two other men locked inside the trunk
of this car as well.
Hitching a ride in a car trunk may not seem like a crazy way to try to cross the border,
but given the extreme heat in southern desert states like Arizona- let alone the fact that
a heat wave was occurring at the time, it can be a deadly way to try to cross the border.
Shockingly, the attempt was nothing new and earlier in the year border patrol agents discovered
children being smuggled in this same way.
Can't Beat 'Em?
Join 'Em In 2015 border patrol agents were on routine
patrol in Laredo Texas when they drove past another border patrol vehicle.
At first, neither of the two agents thought much of it, but given that they knew their
patrol area pretty well, the driver later said that something about the vehicle just
didn't seem quite right to him.
Turning around and following the other border patrol vehicle, the real agents finally pulled
over the fake vehicle and discovered it stuffed to maximum capacity with twelve immigrants.
Naturally the driver was arrested and the immigrants detained, with border patrol investigating
where the vehicle came from and how it was made to look so much like the real thing.
(use photo here https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/12-undocumented-immigrants-found-fake-border-patrol-suv-article-1.2463833)
Getting To America, Evel Knievel Style
Jumping a border fence is nothing new, you've probably jumped plenty of fences in your teenage
years.
But what do you do when you need to transport hundreds of pounds of drugs over a border
fence?
Well, you could try and jump the fence one by one with your best friends, trying to sneak
your drugs into the US individually- or you could say screw it, and take a page out of
professional stuntman Evel Knievel's book and build a ramp to jump the border fence
with your custom made Jeep Cherokee.
That's exactly what eleven individuals attempted to do earlier this year in February, when
border agents discovered vehicle tracks in a protected wildlife sanctuary along the border.
They requested a helicopter to help them search for the vehicle, and soon enough the chopper
found a desert camouflaged jeep cherokee racing back towards the southern border after being
discovered.
With the helicopter in hot pursuit, the driver of the jeep floored it and made straight for
a makeshift ramp that had been erected over the border fence, apparently hoping to jump
the fence and likely the same way that he had gotten over it earlier.
This time though the jeep got stuck, and eleven men were forced to flee into the mexican wilderness
on foot as the Mexican Army was called in to track them down.
(use photo from https://tucson.com/news/local/smugglers-jeep-gets-stuck-atop-makeshift-ramp-on-border-fence/article_e39814e9-1a71-58eb-97c5-9a54885743d4.html) Interestingly the jeep had been completely
modified not just with a desert camo paint job, but it had had most of its body removed
so as to lower its weight, even the windows had been taken out.
Only a plexiglass windscreen protected the driver, and the occupants were forced to hang
on to pipes that had been added to the vehicle to act as a sort of roll cage after most of
the body was removed.
This wasn't even the first time that this sort of incident happened, and incredibly
it seems that smugglers attempting to enter the US illegally routinely attempt to do so
by climbing over the fence with their vehicles.
In 2012 another Jeep Cherokee, this time completely unmodified, was discovered teetering on a
fourteen foot tall border fence after the vehicle had gotten stuck at the top.
Apparently the smugglers had used homemade ramps to get the vehicle to the top, then
dropped two ramps for it to make its way down on the other side.
However they hadn't counted on the fact that the vehicle didn't have the break-over angle
necessary to clear the fence itself, leaving the body of the vehicle unable to clear the
top.
The smugglers left the scene and US law enforcement got a free vehicle to auction off.
(use photo at https://www.autoblog.com/2012/11/01/jeep-cherokee-left-teetering-on-border-fence-after-failed-crossi/)
Why Go Over If You Can Go Under?
Understandably most drug smugglers or illegal immigrants aren't keen on trying to stunt-jump
their way across a fourteen foot tall border fence like they were the star act at a monster
truck show.
For those wishing to travel in relative comfort across the border, the solution is simple:
don't go over, just go under.
In 2010 law enforcement discovered a 600 yard tunnel that ran under the US-Mexico border.
The tunnel began in a warehouse in Tijuana and ended in a warehouse in San Diego, with
the entrances cleverly concealed inside a bathroom sink.
Agents investigating the tunnel were amazed to discover that the tunnel was fitted out
with lighting and ventilation systems, as well as a working rail system to quickly zip
along.
Quite a hefty investment of both time and money, but given the whopping thirty tons
of marijuana that were discovered inside, it's clear that its construction was worth
it to whoever built it.
Yet 125 tunnels have been discovered since the 1990s, and law enforcement is confident
many more exist but are still undetected.
While the border patrol operates a sophisticated tunnel task force that uses ground-penetrating
radar, the border is so vast that it's all but impossible to find most of these tunnels.
Fly Like An Eagle
Drug smugglers have been using aircraft since... well since aircraft were invented really,
but regular airplanes are too easily detected and are forced to file official flight paths
and travel itineraries with the US government.
Failure to do so can lead to you getting intercepted by the US Air Force or simply having law enforcement
waiting for you when you land- two things that drug smugglers are notorious for not
wanting to happen.
In recent years though smugglers have gotten around these two little problems by instead
flying ultralights- tiny aircraft that aren't much more than a small engine, a prop, and
glider-like wings.
While they can only carry a few hundred pounds of drugs at a time, they are flown at night
with the aid of night vision goggles and have their wings painted black.
Their low altitude makes them all but impossible to spot on radar, and their quick speed can
make them difficult to track and follow with ground vehicles even if spotted.
In just 2011 law enforcement reported 228 incursions by aircraft across the border-
and there were just the ones actually detected, leaving the real number of ultralights being
flown into the US in question.
Beep-Beep, I'm A Jeep
Hiding in the trunk of a car is likely a pretty obvious- and dangerous- way to get caught,
but what if you could become the car?
That's exactly what hundreds of illegal immigrants try to do every year.
Border Patrol agents routinely discover individuals who have attempted to hide within the actual
vehicle itself, as in the bits and pieces of it.
One man attempted to camouflage himself as a chair, having himself sewn in completely
into the frame of the car chair.
Despite looking like an obviously lumpy chair to even the most casual of observers, the
man honestly believed the attempt would work.
It didn't.
Yet two other immigrants were discovered in the actual engine compartment of a van- yes,
laying right on top of the engine itself.
One man lay with his head to the left, facing up, while the other lay with his head to the
right, facing down, both of them neatly fitting into the engine compartment like a very weird
lego puzzle.
Another immigrant was discovered sewn into the backseat of a vehicle, though at least
his hiding spot was a lot less obvious than trying to be made to look like a chair itself.
Another stopped vehicle revealed a woman who had actually been hidden inside the dashboard
of the vehicle itself, somehow incredibly stuffing herself into just a few inches of
breathing room.
Two men were also discovered stuffed into the floor of a car, with a carpeted panel
sealed above their heads.
Being sewn into a car seat or stuffed into a tiny compartment may sound ridiculous- and
admittedly when you see the image of the man who tried to pass himself off as a seat, it
really does look ridiculous- but it's also very dangerous.
The temperatures at the US/Mexico border are typically well over one hundred degrees, and
being confined in such tight spaces, or being sewn into non-breathable upholstery can be
a death sentence.
Indeed every year, tragically the US border patrol discovers dozens of dead immigrants,
both from being stuffed into unsafe compartments or from attempts to cross the vast southern
deserts, and the dangerous Rio Grande, on foot.
If you had to illegally cross the US border, how would you do it?
Would you ever be desperate enough to try?
Let us know in the comments!
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