Posted on 08/07/2026 3:27:06 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
They board flights from Central America bound for the United States, not to migrate but to source used cars. Operating a cross-border circuit, these drivers transport salvaged vehicles from American scrapyards to their home roads — giving junked cars a second life and fueling the local economy.
Julio César Pisquiy Nimatuj was 12 when he first drove on a highway. He discovered that he enjoyed being behind the wheel.
Decades later, Mr. Pisquiy, 44, is one of these migrants who drives for a living.
Every driver has their own business model. Mr. Pisquiy buys the cars in advance at auctions in the United States and has them delivered to Otay Mesa, east of San Diego, before bringing them back to Guatemala for resale.
Before heading to the United States, Mr. Pisquiy plans out his luggage.
His first-class ticket allows for 73 pounds of baggage, which he dedicates to vital equipment like wrenches, an impact gun and a tow bar. Whatever space is left over is used to transport general goods.
Online descriptions rarely match reality, so the cars’ actual condition are usually a surprise. Mr. Pisquiy handles the repairs himself, patching them up just enough to survive the 2,000-mile journey.
He travels between 10 and 15 times per year, making an average of $2,000 per trip. The trips can take up to 20 days total.
He also supplements his income transporting gifts and essential supplies coordinated with customers through WhatsApp. He calls himself a transmigrant.
“I also have a body shop and optometrist clinics, but if I can’t travel, I’m in trouble,” he said. “Of my three jobs, transmigrant is the most profitable.”
To transmigrants,...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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Summary: Central Americans buy U.S. scrap cars and drive them home as a livelihood
Central American “transmigrants” fly to the United States not to settle but to purchase salvaged vehicles from American scrapyards and auctions, repair them just enough to drive, and transport them roughly 2,000 miles back home for resale. This informal trade gives junked cars a second life and provides a profitable alternative to traditional migration in countries like Guatemala, where poverty rates are high (around 55% per World Bank data) and the informal sector is large.
The article centers on Julio César Pisquiy Nimatuj, a 44-year-old Guatemalan who makes 10–15 such trips a year. He buys cars in advance, has them delivered to Otay Mesa near San Diego, packs tools (wrenches, impact gun, tow bar) in his luggage, performs basic repairs himself, and drives them south. He averages about $2,000 profit per trip after costs of roughly the same amount (plane ticket, parts, food, Mexican transit permits/taxes, and cartel extortion payments). He also carries gifts and supplies for clients arranged via WhatsApp. He holds other businesses (body shop, optometrist clinics) but says the transmigrant work is the most profitable.
Drivers hold transit visas allowing continuous passage through North America without permanent residency. Mexico restricts them to specific roads and a limited time window (about nine days in Pisquiy’s case). Risks include roadside assaults and robberies (extortion is budgeted as routine), breakdowns, and deadly accidents. Drivers form informal solidarity networks sharing preferred stops for rest and meals. The imported vehicles are cheaper in Central America but often lack the stricter U.S. occupant-safety standards.
Pisquiy, who has been doing this for about 15 years (his first trip involved driving a school bus that made him cry on the freeway), has grown more experienced and cautious. His wife and three children wait at home and mainly hope he returns safely.
Good and ambitious entrepreneurs! More power to them.
But he should re-think the name “transmigrant.” He may find himself with “friends” here he doesn’t really want.
If it happens exactly as written, I have no problem with it.
“I also have a body shop and optometrist clinics,
One of the surprisingly hard to get items is a modern industrial work ladder. You can buy them here in any home center but they're difficult to get outside of cities in some of those countries.
This is the kind of foreigner I wouldn’t mind having as a new citizen neighbor...works hard, travels, is industrious!
What? No Amazon.com?
That was a joke.
This is the kind of foreigner I wouldn’t mind having as a new citizen neighbor...works hard, travels, is industrious!
San Diego has plenty of wrecking yards all bunched together. Getting rid of them is good for the environment.
When Cuba is free there’ll be a bigger need for those cars. He should drive them to a barge on the Carribean/Mexico coast. All old Fords. They’ll be considered modern in Cuba. Donate the klunkers and assemble them using prison labor. Lock Cuba into our stuff.
I’ll trade you two face-pierced critical legal studies majors and a tattooed transgender rights activist for him.
1. New car sales in the US: 15 million
2. Cars junked each year: 10 million
3. Increase in number of cars in the US each year: 2 million
The other 3 million were heading south of the border. Heck, the public transit system of the parts of Central America I'm familiar with are all old US school buses.
They drive down the highway in West Texas chained together, two or three cars in tow.
Reminds me of a banker boss I worked for. When he was young, on week ends he would go to northern iowa where they were tearing down fence for bigger fields and haul supplies to southern iowa where they were still building fences. made a lot of money.
The other 3 million were heading south of the border. Heck, the public transit system of the parts of Central America I’m familiar with are all old US school buses.
I have seen quite a bit of this on I-10 in Texas. More power to them. More efficiency to all. The rest of the world growing better off because of American tech and freedom.
I see these chains of cars all the time here in South Texas heading south
A local town was confiscating them from the people that were towing them
The state got after them and made them stop
Too bad kids today aren’t able to work on these for their own use. If they had a car they could actually afford, they might just be able to get out of the house before age 50.
I know when I started out, having cheap junkers that I could at least keep running got me into better housing.
Better cars came only after that.
Free market at work - delivering resources where they are needed at the lowest price.
I see this here in Texas frequently. I will see a multi car carrier with rather old but not junk cars heading south to Mexico on I 35.
Capitalism Works.
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