Regarding Immigration, What is a Coyote?
A coyote or pollero is someone who specializes in human smuggling, bringing people across the United States border from Mexico. Coyotes typically have extensive experience in smuggling people and other goods, and they use a variety of techniques to get their clients over the border, ranging from sneaking across the desert to hiding smuggled immigrants in trucks. Illegal border crossings are often extremely dangerous, and many coyotes command a high fee as a result; often, this fee must be paid up front, in case an immigrant does not make it across. Many people differentiate between human smuggling and human trafficking when discussing the illegal flow of people across a border. A human smuggler like a coyote helps people get across the border for a fee, and then generally lets them go, while human traffickers exploit their victims, essentially selling them as slaves. However, in some cases, coyotes have been known to use manipulative or sleazy tactics to squeeze more money out of their
