Jacumba Connection

In the high desert above San Diego, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sits the tiny, forgotten town of Jacumba, CA, a place where ghosts of failed attempts to cross linger like the gray chill after a winter rain. Camouflaged against the rocks, a coyote name Wiley cautiously lingers near the Bridge of Sighs with six exhausted Mexican nationals. Time stands still for this small group as they breathlessly wait for a fast moving, teal green SUV to flash its lights three times just beyond the bridge. In an Indian casino seven miles away, Charlie and Denice DeVille live la vida loca as professional gamblers until they receive the call to GO! The hand-off from Wiley transpires flawlessly, and within minutes Charlie, Denice, and their six frightened passengers head north, navigating the gauntlet from San Diego to L.A. in a twenty-first century underground railroad, during a routine run they call the Jacumba Connection.