Rosa Esmeralda shows a message from her late brother Pablo Ortega Alvarez where he tells her that there will be a trailer waiting for him and another migrants after crossing the Rio Grande river before dying of suffocation while being smuggled in a trailer in San Antonio, Texas, U.S., at the family's house, in the town of Tlapacoyan, in Veracruz state, Mexico July 13, 2022. REUTERS/Miguel Angel Gonzalez
At first, Mexican migrants Pablo Ortega and Julio Lopez enjoyed the smuggling equivalent of a first-class ticket to the United States: complimentary beers, safe houses with video games, even a week at a hunting ranch.
Both had borrowed thousands of dollars and paid extra to secure what smugglers promised would be a comfortable trip avoiding the worst dangers of illegal border crossings.
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