A perilous journey: every year, thousands of migrants take great risks trying to get to the U.S. Here's how 205 from Ecuador began their odyssey.

A red light, just barely visible on the horizon, made Hector Segura. the captain of the William, turn as mean as the devil. It was the fourth day of an illegal sea voyage, and Segura was at the helm of a creaky old fishing boat overloaded with 205 passengers, all migrants from Ecuador hoping to reach the U.S. The distant flicker. Segura thought, was the law on their tail.

He rushed his human contraband into the foul, cramped darkness below deck and warned them not to come out. From that night on, he cut food and water rations because he was worried that to avoid capture by patrol boats, he might need to stay at sea longer and he wanted to make the meager resources last.

But in the process of steering clear of the ominous red light on the horizon and trying to avoid detection by the authorities, Segura's ration-cutting plan began to take its toll on his passengers.

Their bellies aching, their tongues parched, some of the migrants began to call the captain "El Diablo" (the Devil). Most, however, accepted him as a necessary evil. To them, he was a coyote, or coyotero, an operative in a chain of smugglers who guides migrants from the highlands of Ecuador up the Pacific Coast to Guatemala, then across Mexico and through border deserts into the United States, with New York the ultimate destination for many of the travelers on this particular voyage.

SWATTING FLIES

Business is booming for people smugglers in Latin America. In the last four years, at least 250,000 people have left Ecuador on fishing boats, immigration officials say. They estimate that people smuggling in the Western Hemisphere generates $20 billion a year. second only to drugs. Officials say there is also an alarming increase in the number of Brazilians, Cubans. and even Eastern Europeans who find their way to the desolate desert stretches that mark the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

"We are basically swatting flies," says one high-level official in the Department of Homeland Security. "Essentially we are completely overwhelmed by the numbers."

The Ecuadorean sea voyage is one of the least-visible and fastest-growing smuggling routes--and one of the most dangerous. Hundreds of bodies, many believed to be those of Ecuadoreans, have washed ashore in northern Guatemala.

A $10,000 PASSAGE

Yet in the hope of reaching the U.S., Ecuadoreans pay between $10,000 and $12,000 for the passage north, often putting up their homes as collateral to loan sharks. The voyage of the William, for which 205 migrants paid an average fee of $10,000 each, was worth at least $2 million. Beginning their journey late on a Sunday earlier this year, this group of migrants arrived from the Andes Mountains on buses and cattle trucks, with the William waiting offshore. Big and broad, it was a reassuring sight. But as the hold filled, some passengers shouted there was no more room. "Move over," growled a crew member. "We have a lot more people to fit down here."

Then the floor at the front of the hold caved in, sending passengers tumbling. Someone turned on a flashlight. The hold looked like a floating coffin: rotting floorboards, cracked beams, water dripping everywhere.

When the light went out, whispered prayers filled the darkness, and continued until sunrise. The next morning, when the migrants crawled onto the deck to stretch, they seemed shocked at how many there were. "This is not going to be a comfortable trip," Segura said.

His words proved an understatement. Each hour seemed more unbearable than the last. Meals were a handful of crackers and a cube of cheese at breakfast, a watery vegetable stew with sardines and rice at lunch, and about the same for dinner. Particles floated in every glass of water.

The rough waves and asphyxiating humidity took their toll on passengers. They became pale. Their lips cracked and blistered. They suffered dizziness, nausea, and diarrhea. Rank smells drifted everywhere: in the boat's single bathroom, in the kitchen, especially in the hold. Sickness spread among the migrants.

Then Segura spotted the flickering red light, and things got even worse. He ordered all passengers to get below deck, and snapped at the crew when they gave favors to sick passengers.

In any case, the crew's kindnesses were only partly genuine. Crew members were also haunted by the red light. If they were caught, the migrants would be the key to their escape. The plan was simple: if the authorities boarded, the migrants would say the crew abandoned them. The crew would blend in. If everyone stuck to the story, the crew would be sent back to Ecuador with the migrants.

LAND, AT LAST

Two days later, the captain announced that they were close to their destination, and the tension eased. At sunrise on the eighth day, the passengers finally reached dry land, a remote beach near Guatemala's border with Mexico. Their tongues were parched and their legs weak. But before they could catch their breath, they were ordered to run. A pack of armed men appeared and barked at the weary travelers and herded them together. "Get up! Let's go!"

The armed men loaded the migrants onto the back of an old red cattle truck and drove them to safe houses. In less than 15 minutes, the handoff was complete. Another 205 migrants had moved closer to the United States.

Three days after their arrival in Guatemala, new smugglers picked up the migrants in groups of three and four to guide them through Mexico. Migrants were loaded onto tricycle carts that operate as taxis and carried away.

As several migrants later recounted, the journey through Mexico was not without dangers of its own. Migrants have fallen beneath moving trains and lost limbs. One woman said she was packed into a tractor trailer with 150 other migrants and driven to a safe house in a jungle province of Guatemala. The human load was then broken down into two groups, she said. Hers left at sunset and walked until dawn through the jungle into Mexico.

'THE MOST PAINFUL PART'

Another migrant said she had walked for two days and two nights across the desert in northern Mexico into Arizona, a trek she described as "the most painful part" of the entire journey. After that, the smugglers moved her on to Los Angeles, where she stayed for several days in a safe house before flying to Minnesota. Others from the William are now working as dishwashers, cooks, and maids in Chicago, Newark, N.J., and New York.

"Once they get into Mexico and the United States they're gone," says Salvador Briceno at the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador. "They disappear."

Some migrants disappear for good. Last year, an average of one migrant a day died trying to cross the desert into the United States. Others are killed in violence among people-smuggling gangs. Bloodshed, however, is bad for business, and so the level of violence is less than that of the international drug trade.

Still, unscrupulous behavior takes a heavy toll on migrants, as does the callousness of many of the smugglers. To smugglers, the numbers of dead migrants matter less than the numbers on the American dollars they receive.

At the end of what appeared to be a good business day, Wilber Guerra, one of the smugglers, barely looked up from a stack of $20 bills to bid farewell to a group of migrants from the William.

"I know you all are going to forget me when you get to New York," he said. "If you are lucky, you will forget everything about this trip."

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the hardships endured by many illegal immigrants from poor countries as they try to make their way to the United States--in this case, the hazardous voyage taken by 205 Ecuadoreans with a band of smugglers.

BEFORE READING: Write $3,300 on the board. Then tell students that this is the per capita gross national product of Ecuador. Remind them that millions of Ecuadoreans earn much less. Then tell them that the people they are about to meet in this article paid more than three times $3,300 to get to the U.S.

CRITICAL THINKING/WRITING: Have students write a brief essay: Knowing what they do about life in America, what would they do to get to this country if they lived in a poor country like Ecuador? Would they be concerned about the fact that their journey to this country was illegal?

MIGRANT ALERT: After students finish the article, have them work individually or as a group to design and write a flier or poster that warns potential migrants of the dangers they face in both the sea and land portions of the journey to the U.S.

REBUTTAL: One of the smugglers defended her smuggling of illegal migrants to the Times's Ginger Thompson: "I am only trying to help people, not hurt them," she said.

How would students respond to this smuggler? Is she part of a system that helps people, or one that exploits them? Does the people-smuggling business do both?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* There is 'debate about how to treat illegal immigrants. Some people object to the policy of deporting such migrants and favor granting them work permits. Explain why you agree or disagree with the proposal to grant legal status to these immigrants.

* What would you ask Hector Segura, captain of the William, about his life as a migrant smuggler?

FAST FACT: In August 2004, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 93,000 illegal immigrants along the southwestern border with Mexico.

WEB WATCH: www.geographia.com /ecuador provides background on the culture and history of Ecuador.

QUIZ 2

1. Captain Segura cut the migrants' food rations because

a he feared they were using them up too fast.

b he was basically a mean person.

c he feared authorities were near and he might need to stay at sea longer than planned.

d he needed to stretch them for the next group of migrants waiting to be smuggled to Guatemala.

2. The revenue from people smuggling in the Western Hemisphere--$20 billion a year--is second only to --.

3. How did many of the poor migrants raise the money to pay for their voyage? --

4. U.S. immigration authorities imply that the reason they are unable to stop as many illegal, migrants as they would like is because

a the smugglers are armed and dangerous.

b the numbers of illegal migrants is overwhelming.

c they don't know which routes the migrants take.

d they can't predict when migrant boats are coming.

5. Which of the following is the most accurate description of life aboard the William?

a Members of the crew were genuinely concerned about the safety of the passengers.

b Segura was temperamental, sometimes kind to the migrants, sometimes cruel.

c The grim conditions aboard the William led to frequent quartets among the migrants.

d The crew's kindness toward the migrants did not spring entirety from genuine concern for them.

6. The article reports that the illegal migrants come to the U.S. to find work. Identify a few of the pros and cons of hiring illegal migrants. --

. (c) he feared authorities were near and he might need to stay at sea longer than planned. 2. drugs. 3. Many obtained money from loan sharks, putting up their homes as collateral. 4. (b) the number of illegal migrants is overwhelming. 5. (d) The crew's kindness did not spring entirely from genuine concern. 6. Possible pro: Illegal migrants generally work for lower wages. Possible con: Hiring illegals violates the law and possibly takes jobs from Americans.

Sandra Ochoa, a newspaper reporter in Cuenca, Ecuador, posed as a migrant and arranged passage on the fishing boat William. Ginger Thompson. The Times's Mexico City bureau chief, was denied passage when she disclosed she was a journalist, but reported for this article from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico.