How does Lourdes lost most of the money she saved to try to bring her children to her?

She pays a lot of money to crooked "immigration consultants" who promise to smuggle her kids into the U.S.A. They either offer too dangerous a journey or simply scam her.

 Lourdes hired a immigration counselors who promised her to make her a resident to bring her children to the United States but, they never delivered. (Chapter 3 page 17)