Anatomy of a Coyote

Deciding which term to use for coyotes in general is harder. They're definitely people smugglers, that's essentially the definition of the job. But a lot of them are also human traffickers to various extents.

The people being smuggled pay a network to start their journey, and if they make it to their destination they'll likely be free from the coyotes, but in between their position is a lot like trafficking victims. It's pretty common to extort travelers for whatever they have left, abandon the agreement (e.g. by taking them somewhere other than promised to get a payoff, or stranding them with no compensation to avoid police), or outright force them into things they never agreed to like drug trafficking or the sex trade. As the article notes, '“Those taking money from the top are the same ones taking money from the bottom,” Zambrano tells me. Although coyotes are described in the news as not having much reach, they actually try to steer the migration flow based on their own interests, at the expense of refugees.'

A coyote smuggles people but the status of the people being smuggled varies. Either the people pay the coyote up front for safe crossing but many can't afford the price. So they are promised a "job" in order to work off their coyote debt. Job being a euphemism for bondage/slavery doing god knows what. So it's a safe bet to say that coyotes participate in human trafficking.

For some reason it's a tired HN tradition to point this out. "Haha, did anyone else thing it was talking about the animal? :^D"