Angela Kocherga/KTEP
A group of migrants turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents after crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso.
Ana Castro sat with her two children on a curb just steps from the Paso del Norte Bridge in downtown Ciudad Juarez, considering her options and crushing debt.
“Truthfully, I’d like to try again,” said Castro, hours after she and her daughter, 12, and son, 9, were expelled by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing into the United States. “We’re already here and have a debt weighing on us.”
She owes $7500 to her “guide,” a term many migrants prefer rather than smuggler, who brought her and the children to the border. Castro, 29, is among an untold number of migrants, likely in the tens of thousands a year, who rely on international smuggling organizations that promise safe passage to the United States across multiple borders and through Mexico.