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The Devils Highway is a path many migrants risk crossing to reach the United States and come here illegally from Mexico. There are many death stories on how the The Devils Highway got it´s name, it is believed to be haunted by gods, ghosts, creatures like the Chupacabra, and thousands of lost souls who have died in the desert. This desert has killed thousands because of how hard it is to cross, there are miles and miles of just dirt, no trees, no shade, no water in sight,and just the hot beaming sun over you . Then at night it's even worse there are wild animals that prey on you like coyotes, snakes, scorpions, the freezing temperatures, and the voices of those who have died. The highway continues to be one of the deadliest paths today's and many migrants try to survive to come to American in hopes for a better life and future.

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Chapter 1:  Rules of the Game (p. 14-18)

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Chapter 1:  Rules of the Game (p. 14-18)

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There were five men who got separated from the rest of the group trying to find help from the Border Patrol. They are exhausted and near death trying to help the rest of their group and spot Border Patrol. They plead to help save the rest and send agents to search for the rest of the group of ¨seventeen¨ then thirty. In cases like this many migrants give up because the desert over powers them from it's conditions. However you would think in difficult times there would be help offered to these migrants but they are not they are made fun of and called ¨wets¨ by Border Patrol. They beat them, laugh in their faces, sometimes many of these heartless officers grope and moleste women who are helpless. Coyotes are shot in the heat. Then there are Texan rangers who are known for many cruel things. Beatings. Rape. Shootings. Teargassing. Broken legs. Border patrol and Texan rangers however fall in the same category of cruelty.

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The Border Patrol have their own small group  at their station because no one else will really accept them. They have to be careful they are not seen wearing uniform in a store, don't cross the border, don't show off their badge, and especially don't try to get out of a situation using your Border Patrol privilege. However they like  their job and most of them are ex military men who are married to Latin women.  They also like pulling mean tricks on migrants who cross the border one of them was when an officer had migrants in his truck and put a rattlesnake in the back with them. Migrants have it hard already to be dealing with agents pulling tricks on them. Border Patrol has time to play tricks on migrants but no time to fill out any paper work. Most agents will find bones or bodies in the desert but leave them there to rot because they don´t want to fill out reports on dead bodies. The ones that really get them feeling compassion for are bodies of women and children, even women who are pregnant often die with growing babies in them. These are some of the most saddest cases that are never reported.

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Even though border patrol are not the smartest they do have a small bit of common sense left in their brain. They use a strategy called ¨dragging¨, agents will often smooth out dirt where the most common areas of migrants pass to find footprints. The footprints will help agents figure out which direction they are going to catch them. But, migrants know about this and will often jump over it or make footprints walking in a different direction to throw them off. One day everything changed when agent Mike F finds five men off the drag and are in in bad shape. This is the start of the story of the Yuma 14 or Welton 26. The Yuma 14 were all migrants males who died in the desert. Their bodies were found in horrible conditions they were baked from the sun, their bodies were rotting. they had dirt in their eyes and mouths, and there flesh was missing from their bodies. All they left behind was the things they were carrying like coins,wallets,watches, money, clothing, letters,and pictures of the Virgin Mary. Agents had to do reports on them and the rest who survived. The Yuma 14 became a popular story in the news and people were interested in them after they were already dead. They were examined and pictures were taken of their remains. After they got to receive the most expensive gift of their life which was being flown back to Mexico.

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In this part of the book we are introduced to the city of Veracruz but sadly is starting to lose its economy and making it harder for the people living their to survive. There are many people who don´t have well paying jobs, cant afford food or clothes, and some others can't even send their kids to school. Many of the men head to El Norte to be able to send money back home or even come back with luxury goods.  However there's a certain coyote that the town looks up to, they call him Don Moi. He is a Americanized  coyote that can get people to cross into the US but at a very expensive price. Some of the resident of Veracruz , Reymundo Barreda and his son, Nahum Landa, Enrique Landeros Garcia, Reyno Bartolo Hernandez, and Mario Castillo Fernandez go to Don Moi so he can help them escape the poverty in their city.

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The coyotes are well know for transporting and smuggling people across the border.  They control all over the border and sometimes even have control of the soldiers at the border because they buy them off with money. The coyotes are very organized with their plan and if someone is too slow they get left behind  in the desert and have to survive by themselves. Most get lost or die trying. Coyotes pockets are filled with money which gets them by and can pay whoever they want if they want something. However many of the connections are with family who can be trusted. They have their own crew where one is the one who recruits the polleros or guías for transport, Don Moi recruits the walker, EL Negro enforces and organized the shady doings ,and El Moreno supervises the transport to keep everything in check. They have their own ways of doing things to be able to keep their pockets full.

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Guais are the lowest level when it comes to smuggling they often are tough boys who want to make good money. Sometimes coyotes give guias drugs like cocaine or this other cheap drug ephedra-based diet pills to get them to cross people faster. One of the guias, Antonio Lopez Ramos, who they call Jesus was one of the guias  who lead the Wellton 26/Yuma14 through the Devils Highway. It is said they don't know what happened with that group but they do.There are many stories of guias leaving  their pollos and never returning, leaving them lost or left to die.

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The beginning of this chapter starts with the lost survivors  in the hospital. They are burned from the sun and can't remember the cities they came form. They are questioned by sheriffs, they ask them who was their walker, what directions they took, and how much they payed.However the men don't snitch in fear of getting killed. Then we get a backstory on Jesus´s, one of the guias, how he grows up poor, gets a job in a tile factory and meets Rodrigo Maradona who introduces him into the gangster world. Maradona tells him how good he is living as a part time coyote how he has his pockets full and the excitement of running from the migra. Jesus doesn't like being called a gangster or smuggler but he likes how some may see him as a activist leader, make music about him, police after him, how it makes him be seen more important. Maradona  and Jesus are in  a different route now with their new group the  Yuma14/ Welton26. They lead them into the Devils Highway with no clue on what lies ahead of their journey.

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Mendez and Maradona are at the border staying in a motel nearby.  There they wait for their new group of pollos to arrive. When the group arrives they get to work and right when they are about to take their last group before the Yuma 14/Wellton 26 they get caught by border patrol. The border patrol asks questions to Mendez but he doesn't say anything. On the other hand Nellys hotel was starting to get filled with immigrants. Meanwhile Don Moi is on the bus to Sonoita with 26 other pollos with plans to leave May 19th.

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Mendez goes to look for Maradona so they can go cross their pollos but he cant get a hold of him. So El Negro has to end up getting two other walkers Santos and Lauro to go with him. They head to Nellys hotel where all the pollos are and tell them to meet by the buses at 11. Before they start the journey the pollos go to this little store to buy candies, water jugs, and some pepsis. When 11 comes around Mendez makes a deal with one of the bus drivers and no questions asked he takes them. They get off  at this one spot and cross into the desert. Then a van comes to pick them and they go for a 90 minute drive. Once they all get off its about 1 and they start the journey of walking the desert. Mendez realizes they got there early  which isn't good because this means they will get tired even sooner due to the heat. But he figured they can get a head start to beat the time.

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The group starts to walk  through the difficult sand of the Devils Highway and have trouble maintaining their breathing. However they continue to follow Mendez until he sees a unknown light flash at them out of the darkness. In fear they run and hide from this mysterious light. Some of the pollos drop their water jugs, hats, or fall and scrape their knees in efforts to not be seen. (This later is proven true by Border Patrol who follow their tracks and see all the belongings) But no one appeared no Border Patrol, no hunters, no one at all. This light threw Mendez off and they get off track. Mendez doesn't tell them he's lost and just continues to tell the  group to follow him. However the sun starts to set in making matters worse because they are about to go through the terrible heat of the Devils Highway.

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Sunday, May 20 at 6:00 am, dawn starts to rise filling the desert with heat.The pollos start to ask if they are lost another answers that Mendez says they are not. Mendez tells them there are 3 deserts and they are in the first one heading to the next one just over the hills.However,  Mendez  was making errors after errors and assumed they had to climb over the hills when they really were walking towards the killing light where the men begun to die. The sun had no mercy. The group started to go through the 6 stages of hypothermia.
1. The first stage is Heat Stress where you begin  to feel tired, dizzy,headaches,and dehydration. 2.Then Heat Fatigue where the body starts to burn up from your head,lips, cheeks, the bottom of your feet losing all of the moisture in your body.
3. In Heat Syncope your skin begins to feel cold and look pale, while disorientation starts to kick in.
4. Heat cramps start to begin because the loss of salts coming out your sweat. With no salts the muscles in your body cant move properly then muscle cramps begin and your legs start to ache.
5. Heat Exhaustion is where fever spikes in along with the flu,vomit, headaches, hallucinations ,being completely disorientated
6. The last stage is Heat stroke where your completely dehydrated and your own muscles start to feed on themselves. At this point many will drink their own urine or will strip nude because they are being burned alive and their body begins to shut down.

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At this point Mendez is completely lost and doesn't know which way to turn next. The group starts to get stress and frustrated with him asking how much more do they have to walk. Santos suggest they should just turn back and follow their footsteps back to bluebird if they want to survive. Mendez says they are wasting time and there almost there but 3 or 5 other members go with Santos breaking away from the group. Later it is said Santos and his group were never found.

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In this chapter the people in the group are talked about and who they were each individually. We got more details on their background and the reason why they wanted to cross into the US. Many were looking for jobs to maintain their families back at home and be able to build houses for their loved ones. Some of them left their children and wife's back at home worrying if they will make it. However all of them were taken advantage of by Don Moi by changing the amount they were going to pay for being crosses. They were also being forced to pay Don Moi back as soon as they get into the US which would take years of working to get out of the debt.

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Monday, May 21 the group starts to realize that Mendez doesn't know where they are going. They start telling him off and how he is going to kill them because he's just making them walk in different directions. The group ask him and Lauro to go and buy them water or get help. It's not sure who offered money or who demanded the money but Mendez took all of the groups money and told them he was going with Lauro to go buy them water and get them help. They promise that they will come back for the group in 5 hours. After hours and hours of waiting the group knows they aren't coming back for them and head north the same direction Mendez went in hopes of surviving.

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The rest of the men Mendez left behind were becoming desperate. They are weak but manage to walk 10 more miles from where Mendez left them. As the hours pass by the men start to get weaker and weaker. Then as their last hope they start a fire at night hoping someone will see the smoke and come for them. Time goes by and they realize no one is coming for them. On May 22, the  sun starts rising and so does the temperature of the sun. The remaining  of the group  try walking but some can't keep up. One by one they start dying and getting left behind. Some of the men don't remember how the members left behind died. However they did see when others started going insane. One took off all his clothes, folded it nicely, and layed on his back staring at the sun. Another fell and stayed their until he got cooked in the sun. While another died in the arms of his father. Then another started yelling for his mom and kept banging his head on a cactus. Abraham Morales, Reymundo Jr., Reymundo Sr., Julian Ambrose Malaga, Rafael Temich , and one man with no name all died on this day.

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Méndez and Lauro continue to walk in hopes of salvation  but Lauro starts becoming exhausted. He sits down to rest but ends up falling asleep. Mendez tries to wake him up but can’t and as he tries  to get up again his legs give up on him. Mendez can’t get himself to keep walking and starts crawling forward pushing himself to keep going but he is too exhausted and ends up falling asleep as well under a bush.It’s now  May 23, in the main group there are more men falling behind but the Manzano brothers take it into their own hands to lead the group of 5. They eat cactus's to survive and hope they can find border patrol. They are very weak but make it to the Barry Goldwater Bombing Range. They are so close to dying until Mike F spots them.One of the men named Mario tells Mike F there are more men that were left behind including his brother who is in the hills. . Mike calls in the Banzai Run which is a backup of multiply officers along with the migra all in  rescue mode.They start to send out helicopters to rescue the men and start spotting them on the ground. Many of them are exhausted and disoriented as they get loaded onto the helicopters. There are cutters, marines ,hunters, cops and rangers all looking for any others survivors . They end up finding Mendez along with Lauro. However once they reach them Lauro is dead and Mendez survives. Another man who was lying in the sun for days dies just as the helicopter reaches him while others are still being rescued.

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The men arrive at the Yuma Medical Center where they meet Dr. David and his team. They are overwhelmed by all the bodies coming in and how most of them have kidney damage. Another named Dr. Haynes tells the newspaper how they all could have died if they weren't brought to the hospital on time and proceeds to describe the men as mummy's from ancient Egypt because of how bad the conditions were. There were 9 in fair conditions, 2 in serious conditions and one in critical. In times like these where walkers are close to death they tax the medical systems of border towns which ends up leaving hospitals paying millions each year. The men start getting interrogated by the police to figure out what is going on. However most are still confused or uncertain what to say. Especially after what they just went through some are still insane from the walk. But one of the men, Nahum says the guy with the rooster hair is Mendez and he is the one who abandoned them. After no one else gives any other details about the walk or anything else but the cops start interrogating all of the survivors to get their testimony about Mendez. A case worker named Rita Vargas arrives to the police interrogations and starts caring for the men to make sure they know their rights.

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The remaining survivors are given the chance to be able to get stabilized and then will be sent out to Phoenix where they are full recovered. Paul K. Charlton  a US attorney for the district of Arizona  wants to take down Mendez.  Mendez is starting to get accused for what happen to the  Yuma 14/Wellton 26. However Mendez writes a letter to explain his side of the story and how he didn't want this to happen and didn't mean to cause harm to any of the men. The US attorney believes Mendez endangered the group and had malicious plans for them. The bodies end up being shipped to medical examiners in Tucson where they can finally rest in peace.

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After a long night for the men of restless sleep the Mexican President Vicente Fox sends out the Mexican Chief of Migratory Affairs and the port Juan Hernandez to meet the survivors of the Yuma 14. Hernandez says they are heroes while Mendez is rotting in jail being guarded. Mendez knew his life was over at 19 and no one can't help him. He didn't rat out anyone and remained loyal. He just wanted others to see he was a good guy and he risked his life for the men. The medical examiners confirm that the Yuma 14 died due to hypothermia .They start getting taken to funeral homes that costs thousands of dollars per body which doesn't include the coffin or shipping. The total was about 25,000 dollars and they weren't even sent home yet. However when the time came they were sent to Veracruz. When the plane lands Vargas notices that there are crowds of people waiting. The community of Veracruz created a event of return for the men who were known as heroes. Vargas meets with the Yuma 14/wellton 26 families but is in disgust when she sees prepared statements being read for the cameras. Then Vargas starts to calculate the flight for the dead which ends up being 68,000 dollars . She thinks all of that money could have been put into these communities instead. As we go back to Mendez he is now trying to fight the charges being put against him but then suddenly pleads guilty for less charges. Which ends up giving Mendez the right to stay in the US alive and protected from any gang for a length of 16 years.

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The survivors continue to tell their story while the Cercas gang are caught but El Negro manages to escape and is a wanted man. The on November 3, Mendez pleads guilty to 25 counts of smuggling with each a heat fine and a possible death penalty. The survivors fight together against him and end up being allowed to stay in the US and are also given jobs in a meat packing plant. This tragedy helped the US and Mexico to create a better relationship until 9/11.After that the US went to eat and many of the border patrol became air Marshals or enlisted in the army. There were waves of immigrants who would flood the border. Cartel and gang violence continues at the border. The incident of the Yuma 14 only got attention became of the numbers and this tragedy is ignored stopping the cycle of violence to end.

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After the  tragedy that occurred on the devil's highway there were new safety towers, water stations available, and emergency shelters.There were signs in Spanish and English to help out the migrants. However most weren't too happy with immigrants taking over the system that cost 55,000 each of taxpayers money. But in a study the data showed immigrants actually bring more to the economy instead of taking from it like others claim.

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It's been more then 10 years since the publication of Devils Highway, Urrea was surprised on how this book took off and how it was required to be read in many high-schools and colleges. However Urrea does remember a time a young man asked a question in a group discussion on,¨why should we read a book about people who shouldn't even be here?They´re like illegal.¨ With this question being asked in a discussion about this book showed how people weren't really paying attention to the book. Urrea dropped everything in his personal life to focus on the book to become a story of all humanity and how there are ways it can be mislaid due to border issue . As Urrea researched and had contact with the border patrol the agents were starting to get suspicious of him. But Urrea believes all of the migra, smuggles, and walkers are all worthy witnesses.

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Urrea syas he left out his own personal experiences and his research in writing of the Devils Highway. The reason why is because he felt it would be a sin if he were to write them next to stories of who risked everything even their lives to come to America. He also says he once crossed paths with Don Moi before he even knew who he was. However Urrea lost track of the survivors but did say Raymundo Srs nephew wrote to him after the book was published. He says he showed his gratitude to Urrea for writing the truth about his uncle.Now Raymundo nephew is a professor in world economics and hopes he can save the border and heal the relationship between Mexico and the US.