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A man from Guatemala is robbed along Mexico's southern border; a Mexican boy is forced into voluntary leave by U.S. immigration authorities and lands penniless in Nogales; a Honduran woman is beaten, raped and abandoned by the guide she paid to help her reach Phoenix. Injured, marginalized, scared, humiliated and exhausted, these are some of the human beings you will meet at a Grupo Beta field office.

Founded in Tijuana in 1990 by Mexico's Interior Ministry, Grupo Beta attempts to inform migrants determined to reach the United States of the risks they face when they travel north. The agency began as a police force to deter smuggling of people and drugs but has since transformed into an unarmed safety patrol with a reputation for honesty and efficiency. Most importantly, the organization provides vital assistance to hundreds of thousands of humans beings trying to survive in the vicious world of human migration.

Grupo Beta does not detain migrants, nor physically deter them from making their journey. Grupo Beta simply offers help whenever a migrant is in a position to request it. Often, migrants are picked up near dangerous drug smuggling corridors and are suffering from dehydration, disorientation, physical injuries and severe emotional trauma. In all cases, Grupo Beta will offer to take the migrant to the nearest field office where they will be treated, fed and offered a place to rest until they recuperate. In addition to providing basic humanitarian aid, Grupo Beta also posts flyers along the border advising migrants to avoid certain areas during summer months and often pays up to 50% of the migrant's bus fare home, should they decide to abandon their trek north- a scenario, that in recent months, has become more common given heightened border enforcement strategies in certain border areas, including Nogales.

Given the sweeping economic disparities that exist between the United States and its southern neighbors, current human migration patterns through Mexico's vast territory remain unparalleled in the Western Hemisphere. Despite tremendous economic growth in the last quarter century, roughly 40% of Mexico's population continues to live in poverty. In Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador poverty levels are even worse. There are few other cases where the gaps and inequities of the expanding global economy are more glaring than in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. While Mexico's economic situation is illustrative of the many problems that developing countries face throughout the "global south," the economic might of the United States is representative of the "global north," and until disparity trends reverse, Grupo Beta undoubtedly has its hands full.