How I became a migrant trafficker in Mexico

In February 2024, far-right American activist and white nationalist Laura Loomer – whom former United States president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump once praised as “really very special” – descended upon Panama for a weeklong “investigative trip” to the Darién Gap to “report on the invasion of America” being staged thousands of kilometres south of the United States border. When two young Venezuelan friends of mine – we’ll call them Juan Antonio and Claudia – crossed into the Mexican state of Chiapas from Guatemala in March, I was in the neighbouring state of Oaxaca and decided to do my part for the migrant conquest by renting a car and going to pick them up. My best American tourist accent failed miserably, and we were hauled out of the vehicle for inspection of all possessions including our cell phones – prompting the following sympathetic comment from the sole female police officer: “Well, we all have naked pictures on our phones, don’t we?” This same officer suggested repeatedly that I gift her my sunglasses, while the male officers concerned themselves with more substantial matters: I would need to produce 50,000 Mexican pesos or they would confiscate the car, put me in jail for migrant trafficking, and send the Venezuelans back to the border. Some more threats were emitted before the “good cop” of the group asked for my phone – this time to indicate to Juan Antonio and Claudia the pedestrian route they were to use to circumvent the upcoming checkpoints, one belonging to the National Guard and the next to Mexico’s National Migration Institute, the latter of which was just beyond the Chiapas-Oaxaca state border.