Maybe another story could be about the camps of migrants that have sprouted along the border and that, at the same time, concentrate more interesting potential personal profiles, from the migrants to the “coyotes” or “pateros”. This type of story is asking for a multimedia project, because the concentration of rich stories makes it possible to explore many aspects of the immigration issue and also demonstrates why more and more profound coverage is urgently needed.
While it is true not all migrants gather in this sort of camps, because big groups of them and smugglers wonder around in cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, this type of project is attractive because it allows me to explore the interpersonal dynamics, business and interests that develop in that context.
Not only would it be interesting to do this story because these human settlements are perhaps ignored by immigration authorities (maintaining the pattern of migration and assuring more people send money back home?), but also because it lets me cover how people and communities are affected by the process of immigration directly or indirectly (e.g. how migrants pick up an addiction or how the closest town to the camp is affected economically or judicially by its chaos). Unfortunately, many migrants are stranded on the border, floating in a limbo of uncertainty, and begin to organize in gangs and commit crimes, mixing themselves with drug and human smugglers to redefine, along the way, border communities.
Similarly, I think that a good story could be developed exploring the causes of the high rate of alcoholism and drug use among Latin American immigrants. While many attribute these tendencies to their new lives in the
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