A Harsher Border Crossing

The smugglers, she said, carried her back to the safe house, where they tried to treat her swollen knee.

We can still get you across, they promised.

The next day a van pulled up. Fourteen people lay on top of one another before she was placed on top and blankets were thrown over the group, Paz said.

The plan was for a corrupt U.S. inspector to wave the car through, said Mari Paz, who overheard the smugglers.

But when the car approached the border, the radio squawked with news that the inspector had been rotated from the booth. The driver jumped out and fled.

Mari Paz said U.S. inspectors stared in disbelief when they discovered the pile of people. The inspectors gave her painkillers, she said, and then pushed her back to Tijuana in a wheelchair.

Smugglers made Mari Paz another offer. For $4,000 they could design a metal compartment and affix it -- with her inside -- to the bottom of a car.

But Mari Paz had only $3,000. She opted to give up.

At home, Mari Paz said she would have forceful advice to offer any of her three sons contemplating a journey to the U.S.: "I don't want any of them to cross. Because it's so hard and so sad."

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\o7Times staff writer Nicole Gaouette contributed to this report\f7.