Mexican Children working as human smugglers for Cartel Raising Pollitos, baby chicks, was common in the Barrios of Tucson Arizona. The term Pollitos reminded me of brightly colored Easter eggs in Easter season.

The word Pollitos or “Polleritos” holds a grim look of nothing resembling colorful Easter eggs, but of a human smuggling business at our borders with Mexico. Polleritos are Mexican children working for a cartel in the human smuggling business. The Spanish term “Pollerito” translates to chicken handler and the border illegals crossing with “Polleritos” are called Pollos, the chickens.

Mexican organized crime is using an increasing number of male children, 12 to 17 years of age to cross illegals all along our Mexican U.S. Borders. A child can make up to $2,000 a day, drawing $200 for every Mexican, and $500 for every Central American smuggled across the border. People smuggling is more important than school for these children, because it puts food on the table and shoes on their feet.

Children take two to four illegals at a time, moving at night, trying to escape the sight of U.S. Border Patrol. Polleritos have become skillful and oblivious to the sounds of rattlesnakes or the bitter cold desert nights, crossing illegals.

Cartels recruit these children from the poorest parts of the country around border towns. Children work in Juarez to cross illegals over to El Paso, Nogales Mexico into Tucson Arizona, and Matamoros, Mexico to Brownsville, Texas. A Day’s journeys usually takes thirty minutes to cross, then hide them in hotels waiting for their rides to pick them up to drive them into the interior of our Nation.

With demands for a complete Border Wall, less than 30% of the U.S. trafficking Mexican Border in unprotected, not including Native American-restricted land with Mexico, where the partition walls ends, human smuggling begins. It’s where the walls are missing that the Pollitos cross with the illegals.

Cartels use children as human smugglers because it is difficult to prosecute minors. Polleritos are driven back to Mexico within the hour after caught in the U.S., or detained at U.S. Government centers where they are fed, sleep and participate in a school program, until their parents to pick them up.

The numbers of Mexican children identified as human smugglers have increased over the years. In 2006, there were 70 into organized crossing, in 2016 only 150 hundred were identified. Today in June 2019, hundreds more are working the border. The Mexican government’s privacy policy laws protect these children and so when caught are termed as “unaccompanied minors.”

Polleritos soon become the “reclutadores,” recruiters trafficking for the cartel. They recruit and train other children to join the the cartel. Minors also smuggle drugs into the U.S. and are called Burreros or “mules.” Some work as lookout spotters watching for Border Patrol movement, and are called “halcones” or falcons, and lastly others are called “liebres”, hares, Jack Rabbits, to distract Border Patrol Agents while crossing into the U.S.

It is not always the cartel who recruits these children. Too often it is their own families, aunts, uncles or siblings, and sometimes their own parents. Smugglers aspire to be respected and powerful, where manhood is tested and a Mexican macho image is perceived. Polleritos will eventually be pulled into organized crime, most living in the U.S.
Today the Federal Budget increases against drug abuse with billions of tax dollars: $23.8 Billion in 2013 to our $277 Billion in 2018. President Donald Trump’s hardline stealth targeted approach with border drugs and human trafficking is most welcomed along the border.

The lives of Americans seem insignificant to Polleritos and their families smuggling humans, smuggling drugs, and making a living. The question remains, how will the Mexican Government ever make restitution for the millions of American lives lost for this Mexican Drug War?

In her patriotic song “America, The Beautiful,” Katherine Lee Bates, reminds us, “America America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy Liberty-in-law!”

Our Christian Nation has been invaded by the evils of this world flowing like troubled water across our Southern border. Americans should reflect on the words of the biblical passage at 1 Peter 2:9, and who we are called to be: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

Edna San Miguel is a regular columnist in THE STANDARD newspaper. Edna is an 8th generation American with family from Texas (her great great grandfather fought at the Alamo) and Arizona. She is an Arizona school teacher, author, illustrator for the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, involved in SW Arizona missions antiquities restoration with the Guggenheim Museum and a former U.S. Congressional candidate. She is an expert on issues that include human trafficking, drugs, illegals and those behind the scenes. Edna will help bolster a complete news presence for THE STANDARD!