[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] couple of years ago, Teresa Montaño, chef and owner of the newly opened Otoño, noticed that her most reliable employee was falling asleep on the job.
An immigrant from El Salvador, the employee could effortlessly switch from the garde manger station to dishwashing to bussing, and excelled in all. She knew he worked another job, like many other back-of-house workers do, but he had seemed more tired than normal. Until one day, he finally admitted to her: “I’m working literally all day and all night as hard as I can and I can’t still make enough money to bring my son.”
Montaño knew exactly what he was talking about.
Her employee was working to exhaustion so he could pay a coyote to bring his son across the border. The son had already made the journey from El Salvador to Mexico, where he had been waiting for the final leg of his journey. But Montaño’s employee was still short several thousand dollars to make it happen.
As of last year, human smuggling services have been estimated to be in the $15,000 range. On a modest back-of-house salary – typically between $22,000 to $32,000 – having that amount of money in your pocket, in a city where the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is hovering at $2,000, seems almost impossible.