MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Migrant trafficking from Mexico to
                 the United States is a $300-million-a-year business, second only to Mexico's
                 illicit drug trade in terms of revenues from criminal activities, according to a
                 study published on Thursday.

                 Undocumented Mexican immigrants pay about $1,500 each to be smuggled
                 across the border into the United States, Luis Reza, an investigator at the National
                 Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said.

                 The study came a month after authorities found 14 illegal Mexican immigrants dead
                 in the Arizona desert. Last year, more than 300 died as they tried to cross the border
                 across desert or mountain terrain.

                 Some 1.5 million Mexicans are arrested each year as they attempt to cross the
                 1,984-mile (3,200-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

                 The Mexican and U.S. governments are working on a "guest worker" proposal
                 to allow Mexicans to work on a seasonal basis in the United States. The plan is
                 aimed at relieving the need for labor north of the border and reducing the
                 number of often fatal border crossings.

                 The UNAM study said that more than half of Mexican laborers working in the
                 United States were there illegally.

                 An estimated 5 million Mexicans work in the United States illegally, according to
                 rights groups.

                   Copyright 2001 Reuters.