“Legitimate” Travel Agencies Assisting Human Smuggling at Border

Smuggling networks have been exacerbating the migrant crisis by putting on a facade of legitimacy, per a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official.

The official told CNN that travel agencies and transportation networks abroad are advertising services that claim to help foreign nationals make their way to America’s southern border, where they connect these migrants to human smugglers who then illicitly sneak these migrants across the border in groups of up to 1,000 people.

Troy A. Miller, the official in question who serves as CBP’s senior official performing the duties of the commissioner, stated: “These smugglers are recklessly putting migrants into harm’s way: in remote locations across the border, onto the tops of trains, or into the waters of the Rio Grande River.”

Miller further explained that the afore-described practice has been significant among the Senegalese subset of migrants. In cities such as Dakar, Senegal’s capital, pseudo-legitimate travel agencies sell customers on visa-free travel to Europe and from there to the United States. Included in these travel packages are connections to illegal smuggling networks that utilize bus lines in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora. These bus lines send dozens of buses a day to “random” spots along the border — spots through which the migrants attempt to cross into America.

CNN went on to report:

The result of these illicit efforts by international groups is an unprecedented migrant surge that has overwhelmed US Border Patrol, prompting the federal government to suspend operations at crossings in San Ysidro, California, Lukeville, Arizona, and El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas.

The closures have allowed the reassignment of 100 port of entry personnel and other law enforcement personnel outside of CBP to the impacted areas. The Bureau of Prisons is also providing transportation support, Miller said.

Accordingly, CBP this month announced its intention to crack down on these smuggling networks by going after the “bus and van lines.”

“The measures include specific law enforcement operations focused on transportation companies and their employees who are facilitating migrant smuggling activities,” declared Miller in a statement earlier this month.

In recent days, over 10,000 illegal aliens have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border daily — levels not seen since May, prior to the expiration of the Trump-era Title 42, which had allowed authorities to turn migrants back at the border on the grounds of Covid-19-related safety concerns.

This week alone, CBP had over 26,000 migrants in custody, which amounts to 10,000 over capacity.

According to officials, the latest surge is due to not only misinformation diffused by smugglers, but limited resources for migrants in Mexico.

What the government won’t admit is that its own policies are encouraging mass migration by making it clear that there will be little to no consequences for violating federal immigration law. On the contrary, illegal aliens are likely to be aided and abetted with resources paid for by taxpayers.

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked — for the next eight years — the separation of families at the border for purposes of border enforcement. The decision by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw was part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought against the government by many migrant families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). While the exact number of affected families and children isn’t known, it’s estimated that the settlement will cover between 4,500 and 5,000 children.

Under the deal reached, families who were affected by the separation policy will be allowed to seek work in the United States and gain access to housing, as well as legal and medical benefits. Moreover, Customs and Border Protection agents will be unable to separate families for eight years’ time.

CBP officials say current migrant levels have the entire system at the breaking point. As they told CNN:

“We could have – and we could sustain – a couple days at 12,000 encounters,” a former Homeland Security official told CNN.

“But the reality is that a sustained flow of 12,000 to 14,000 is what we determined would buckle the system. Anything beyond that started a significant strain of resources and detention. Ultimately, we knew we were surpassing the capabilities of DHS,” the former official said. “It will break.”

And because more areas of the border are being overwhelmed, it has become more difficult to decompress the areas that have to deal with higher numbers of migrants.

But the Biden administration’s supposed solutions for dealing with the migrant crisis would only worsen the flow of foreign nationals. As The New American previously reported, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security wants to expedite border crossings by sending Customs and Border Protection agents to parts of Mexico that have heavy populations of migrant arrivals. Once in Mexico, federal agents would commence the screening process for migrants in order to get them across the border into America sooner.

Clearly, despite the devastating effects the migrant surge is having on American communities, including Democrat-heavy cities such as New York, the White House has yet to take the issue seriously.

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