Labor-Brokerage Coyotaje: Smuggling and Trafficking for Labor Exploitation and Commercial Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

Mainstream migration theory has often explained irregular immigration as an autonomous process driven primarily by individuals, families, or communities. However, the recruitment of undocumented labor by U.S. employers through labor-brokerage smugglers plays an even more significant role. The age of migrants transported by these smugglers is crucial, as it represents one of the key criteria used to distinguish between human smuggling (a crime against the state) and human trafficking (a crime against individuals). This article, based on interviews conducted between 2008 and 2025 with 197 Mexican migrant smugglers, examines whether there are differences in the proportion of minors—as well as in the minimum and maximum average ages—between male and female migrants from Mexico and Central America who were recruited by smugglers operating in labor-recruitment networks (primarily men for labor purposes), sexual-trade networks (women for commercial sexual activities), or mixed networks (involving both types of activities). The data were analyzed by comparing proportions and means for independent groups (labor vs. sexual-trade networks) and paired data (mixed networks). The study concludes that women recruited for the sexual-trade by labor-brokerage smugglers are significantly younger than men transported by labor-brokerage smugglers hired by U.S. employers.