Mexicans defying death to reach the 'promised land' USA & the terrible consequences

Several of those attempting to hitch a ride on the trains are from Central American countries like Honduras and El Salvador who are willing to risk their lives for the opportunity to work illegally in menial jobs should they ever actually reach the U.S..
Referring to America as 'the promised land' the train hoppers that manage to make it on to a speeding locomotive are seen clinging on for dear life as they tear through the countryside of northern Mexico to the border they stand little to no chance of actually making it across.

Before the U.S.-bound trains appear on the horizon, the young men are seen relaxing and sleeping on the railway tracks of northern Mexico. Many of them have already travelled thousands of miles from countries deeper in South America - but their journey is far from finished.

While many of the young men wait near train stations so they can jump on to trains that have yet to build up speed, others consider that approach fair to likely to raise the suspicions of the driver or platform guards.
Instead they wait out in the Mexican countryside, where they are unlikely to have been spotted and make the death-defying leap on to trains speeding along the rails.
While many somehow manage to make it on to the trains, others are unsurprisingly dragged beneath the 36-inch steel wheels and crushed to death.
One of the biggest threats to the young men's lives is exhaustion.
Having already travelled thousands of miles and spent several nights clinging to trains or sleeping in the open, when the time comes for them to make the all-important jump, their bodies fail them and they either fatally miscalculate the leap, or else suffer life-changing disabilities.

Dozens of desperate young men die every year jumping on to U.S.-bound trains in Mexico. The majority have come from poverty-stricken countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and are aged in their late teens or early 20s.

Another thing unites the men too - their all or nothing desire to start new lives in the United States where, as illegal immigrants, they are unlikely to find work other than as exploited, below-minimum-wage workers in restaurants, cleaning and maintenance businesses and on building sites.
'The trains are for the poorest of the poor,' says Carlos Miranda, a migration expert in the southern state of Chiapas. 'If they thought they had any other choice, they would take it.'
Nobody knows precisely how many migrants take the trains, but on certain days, in the most popular train towns - Arriaga, along the southern Pacific Coast, and Tenosique, a modest farming town south of the Yucatan - you will find hundreds, even thousands, of people waiting by the tracks.
If they are lucky, they will hang on long enough to make it to Mexico City, where they switch lines in the massive train yards, and then in dwindling numbers head out again, pushing north to the U.S. border, or as close as they can get.
The risks are enormous: They must navigate a spidery network of aging rails — the trains themselves sometimes jump the tracks — through jungles and deserts and mountains, searing heat and icy rain.
They face attacks by the bandits and gun-toting gangs that patrol the trains, and must hop off and on at immigration checkpoints, risking limb and life each time. The trip can take weeks, or months, if you allow for all the pitfalls and stopovers to earn a few pesos for food.


Pictures below show shocking images show the risks taken and the injuries sustained by the young men who jump on to and off speeding trains in Mexico in a desperate attempt to reach the United States