One migrant has been killed and eight injured in a shooting in Mexico near the Arizona border

SEATTLE — One migrant was killed and eight others were wounded in a shooting near the Mexican town of Tubutama, about 47 miles (75 kilometers) south of Sasabe, near the Arizona border.

Authorities say unknown assailants opened fire on a vehicle carrying migrants, killing a boy from southern Mexico. The injured included migrants from Mexico, Ecuador and Africaaccording to officials.

No motive for the attack has been released, but the area has been hit by violence between rival gangs of people smugglers working with drug cartels.

According to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Criminal organizations generate approximately $6.6 billion in revenue annually from smuggling migrants into the United States.

Cartels in Mexico regularly exploit migrants by demanding money from smugglers who transport groups of people through their territory, sometimes attacking them if they do not pay.

Migrants smuggled across the Mexico-United States border pay about $2,000, while migrants from outside Mexico can pay up to $10,000.

Last September, two Mexican migrants were shot and killed on the Mexican side of the U.S. border. In another notable case, in 2021, Tamaulipas state police shot dead 19 people at the border, including at least 14 Guatemalan migrantsand then burned their bodies. A court convicted 11 of the officers of manslaughter.

According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Since October 1 of last year, 164 migrant deaths have been reported in the El Paso region alone. The number of deaths among migrants in the region has increased by 18.5 percent since July 25 and there have now been more deaths than last year, when there were 149.

At the Arizona border, Humane Border data on migrant deaths revealed that Since 1990, more than 4,100 remains have been discovered in southern Arizona, with 95 reported this year.