ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the numerous difficulties in disentangling smuggling from trafficking in the US-Mexico border context. Current policies do little to diminish human trafficking and may actually worsen the pernicious conditions that feed the illicit global human mobility system. A literature search on human trafficking on the US-Mexico border yields very few results, suggesting that we still understand relatively little about its nature, frequency, and the ways it manifests in the US-Mexican borderlands. Manipulation may be subtle or achieved by creating emotional attachments between trafficker and victim that create the appearance of voluntary consent. Defining and detecting human trafficking is very difficult anywhere, but the complexities of the border context compound the challenge, to the detriment of accurate research and effective policy making. Law enforcement authorities are often reluctant to believe that victims of human trafficking are actually non-consensual victims rather than accomplices to the illegal activity of having hired a coyote to bring them across the border.
