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The Devils Highway is a place where illegals cross to come to the United States. The chapter starts off with five men in the dessert without any water. The men where not looking for a destination anymore they just wanted water. We later find out that they started to hallucinate. The story of these men is what many also go through to come to the US. Later on in the chapter we learn more about the deaths and stories that have happened in this dessert. The first death that happened in this dessert was on January 15, 1541. Many more deaths have happened this then. Many more people have been abonded in this dessert.

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The five men were trying to find a border patrol car. The men were hoping to be rescued. Then send help to the others. Agent F. is the one to find them. The ones who went to get help tell Agent F that there are seventeen of them that need help. The officers job is not only to arrest illegals but to also rescue those who are dying. The officer gave them water. They threw up the water but kept drinking more. Agent F. knows that there are many more bodies out in the dessert that need to be rescued.

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Border Patrol officers have to rescue and arrest those who are coming to the US undocumented by the border. Most of them are ex military. When they go patrol and find bodies most of them don't report it since they don't want to deal with the paperwork. The officers are told to shot to kill. There also has been a huge amount of people that have came out and said that they were harassed by these officers. The officers are not the most liked in their communities and are told not to go out in their uniforms or show their badge to anyone.

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Border patrol has ways of being able to tell if people barley walked over the highway. They notice if one rock has been moved or if the dirt is moved a bit. The group of men that agent F found started to get known as the Yuma 14 or the Wellton 26. They were the biggest group of people who had been found dead at that time. We learn about the 14 who died deaths. Their bodies were described as unrecognizable. People who have passed away in the dessert families are sometimes not even notified that they are not with them anymore. Some bodies are sent back to their home countries.

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Veracruz is a city that was very poor. A american coyote contact Don Mai came to their town with his American belly and truck. He tells the men in this city that they could also get theses things if they go with his coyote to the north. They have to pay thirteen thousand pesos and many of them don't have the money so he tells them to get a loan or they could pay when they start working in the north. He threatens them that he has contacts that could hurt their families if they try running away. The Bautista Boys, Reymundo Barreda, Nahum Landa, Enrique Landeros Garcia, Reyno Bartolo Hernandez, and Mario Castillo Fernandez are some of the men that sign up to go with his coyote to get a better future for their families.

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Coyotes control all the crossing into the US. Don Mai and his family are in charge of everyone who crosses the border. Every member of the family has a job in the crossings. None of them never do the actually walking in the dessert. They hire people that they don't care about. People have to quickly get into the cars that are waiting for them or else they risk getting left behind.

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Jesus was the guia that lead the Wallton 26. Guias never tell the pollos their actual names. They try to blend in with the pollos so if they do get caught they won't be able to tell who the guia is. The guias are as cared for as the pollos. If a guia dies the boss won't care.

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We learn more about Jesus story and how he became a guia. Jesus was poor growing up. He got a job at a factory. He then met Rodrigo Maradona. Maradona told him all about being a guia and how Jesus can earn a lot more money being a guia compared to what he would make in the tile factory. Jesus was introduced to the gangster lifestyle. He loved having power on smuggling people to the US. He wasn't like the other guias, Jesus would dress differently and listen to rock music instead of banda. He was too confident since he did not know what he was going to face in the dessert with the Wellton 24.

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Jesus and Maradora are waiting for a group of pollos. While waiting for them Jesus meets his girlfriend. He then changes his name to Mendez. Mendez and Maradora take their last group before the Wellton 24 across the border. They end up getting caught. Their water stop had been compromised. Don Mai is taking a group of 26 to them as this is happening. The pollos are on a really nice bus to trick them into thinking that this is how it's going to be when they cross the US but they don't know that the worse is yet to come.

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Mendez wakes up hungover. Maradora was nowhere to be seen. El Negro sends him Santos and Lauro to help him with the walk across The Devils Highway. Mendez thinks that they both won't be of any use to him. They stop at a store and the pollos buy pepsi and water for the walk. They then take a bus to the border. Many of them had already begun to drink their sodas. They got to the border early meaning that they would have to wait in the heat longer. Mendez knew that this meant that many of the pollos would get sick and not make it.

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The walk across the Devil's Highway starts for the Wellton 24. Things start to go bad at 11:30 pm. Mendez gets scared when he sees unknown lights. Mendez runs and his pollos follow him. They stopped to rest and it started to rain. The pollos think that this walk isn't going to be as bad as it is. They had already gone so far off the trail by this point. Mendez would then keeping lead them but he didn't know where he was going. He would never admit this. Border patrol agents tracked the way they walked. They would say he was almost leading them in a circle. Since he was going west instead of east.

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The group goes deeper inside the dessert on May 20th. They are still lost and some of them are starting to realize it. We learn about two white couples who go out to the dessert but have the same fate that many do. The dessert doesn't care about the color of your skin, gender, or if you are an illegal. There are six stages to hyperthermia or death by heat. The first stage is dizzy, a bit dehydrated, and being tired. The second stage is losing moisture. The fourth stage is disorientation and skin turns pale. The third stage is cramps. The fifth stage is fevers. The sixth stage is heat strokes. We learn more about what the Wellton 24 are going to go through.

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Mendez is lost and the men keep following him. We see how Mendez is leading them in a u shape trail. He misses many trails that they were suppose to take. The men know that Mendez is leading them to their death. Most of them ran out of water already. Santos suggests that they retrace their steps. Three to five men decide to go with him. Those men where never found.

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We learn more about the men. We know more about why they decided to come to the US. Also their age, name, and background. Many of them left behind kids and wife's but all of them left behind their families. Don Moi charged all the men differently. He told them they could pay him once they started working since most of them couldn't afford it. We are told more information about theses men because each of them have different but similar backgrounds and we could understand more about why they are willing to risk their lives.

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On May 21st the men asked the coyotes to go for help. They started standing up to Mendez and Lauro. Since the men noticed that the coyotes were lying to them. There are many different versions of what happened on May 21st. One of them is that Mendez demanded money to go get them help and that he would take Lauro with him. He promised them water and cars that would take them to safety. After waiting five hours for Mendez the walkers knew he wasn't coming back for them. They got all the energy they had left and started walking. They headed the same way as Mendez in hopes of salvation.

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On May 22nd the men walked for ten miles. It took them 12 hours to walk. In hopes of being saved they started a fire. After that the men started to mentally decline. Reymundo Jr. died in the arms of his father. Reymundo Sr then lets himself be killed by the heat. Abraham Morales, Rafael Temich, Edgar Martinez, Julian Ambrose Malaga, and a nameless man all died. They all laid on the ground and let themselves be taken by the heat. One of them had taken off all of his clothes and just laid there. The ones who were still alive started eating cactus's. To this day the ones who surivied are still shocked that they were found.

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On May 23rd Agent Mike F. finds items that lead him to the group of men. Once they are found border patrol starts a rescue mission to try and find the rest of the men. Some of the men saw that they were being rescued but they died right when help got to them. Those who were alive where transported by helicopters. They found Mendez alive but Lauro was found dead by a bush. The agents didn't know that Raymundo Sr. and Raymundo Jr. were related when their bodies were found, if it wasn't for the men telling them they wouldn't have even noticed. Border Patrol then continues to piece together what happened.

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Chapter 15: Aftermath (Part 1: p 179-186)

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Chapter 15: Aftermath (Part 1: p 179-186)

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The cities and states near the border have been taxed a lot of money for there medical systems. There are many cases where pollos have to get medical help. This can cost cities and states millions of dollars each year. While the men are in the hospital they keep getting interviewed by US and Mexican police. Doctor Haynes describes the men as mummies to the press. The men to the polices that Mendez was the one who left them to die.

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Chapter 15: Aftermath (Part 2: p 186-193) 

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Chapter 15: Aftermath (Part 2: p 186-193) 

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The men are getting help form Rita Vargas. She is helping the Wellton 24 and making sure they know that they have rights. She is trying to make sure Mendez is tried. Mendez writes a letter to the judge asking for forgiveness. He writes them this letter so that they could no go as hard on him. Nothing is really helping Mendez. The men keep testifying against Mendez. While that is happening Vargas is going with the dead to go get autopsied. Some of the bodies did get identified but then there were others that didn't.

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The bodies are sent back to their home. Thousands of dollars were spent on this. Vargas thinks if only the government could have used all this money for their people then they wouldn't have dead bodies going back home. Mendez is in prosecution for the Wellton 24 case. He doesn't want to snitch on the gang since he knows that they will go after his loved ones. Mendez first plans to blame border patrol for not noticing them. He then decides that hes going to tell them everything as long as they don't kill him. He was going to be in the US jail for at least 16 years.

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The men are allowed to stay in the US. They were given a job at a meat packing plant. Mendez is in jail. The US and Mexican border had a better relationship between them until 9/11. After both borders worked together to have a better protection system.

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Safety towers and water stations were added in the Devils Highway. People who were not happy about this would go and destroy them. The agents paid $6,000 for each tower. They didn't want a repeat of what happened to the Wellton 24 to ever happen again. That year they only had nine deaths. Undocumented people cost over $55,000 in taxes. This was proven to be wrong showing that they actually bring in more money to the economy.

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Ten years have past and the author is reflecting on the book. Urrea regrets the use of the word illegals. He says that the border has added more agents. The agents now catch more people than they did before. Even though the number of immigrants have decreased the number of border crimes has increased. Now you will see more rape cases, human trafficing, and more horrible crimes. Urrea says that he now has friends that are border patrol agents. Also agents have come to his book signings.

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Immigration is not a federal law, the only thing you can get is a ticket. The ticket is the price of a speeding ticket. Don Moi went back to the families of those who surivied and tried taking away their land. The women brought local men with shovels and chased off Don Moi. He left running for his life. Urrea tells us how border patrol agents aren't all bad and that he's friends with them. Raymundo's nephew contacted Urrea telling him that without his book they would have never known how they died. The nephew also came in the same path as Raymundo but he actually made it. He got his PhD and is a professor.