
On Friday, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement reported that El Paso Customs and Border Patrol agents have thwarted multiple human smuggling attempts in just the past week.
“In the last seven days alone, El Paso Sector agents have disrupted 23 human smuggling events leading to more than 104 smuggled migrants apprehended and the arrest of nine individuals with criminal backgrounds,” the statement noted.
One of the encounters surrounded “multiple individuals emerging from a storm drain.” Another involved a 52-year-old male who entered the country illegally after being deported for “Aggravated Battery for Controlled Substance Trafficking.”
According to the statement, these individuals face “significant consequences,” which include “expedited removal proceedings” that will allow for CBP agents to quickly deport them.
El Paso Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Scott Good stated that “Migrants should not listen to the lies of smugglers and make the dangerous journey, only to be turned back. When migrants cross the border illegally, they put their lives in danger.”
One of the most lucrative businesses for crime groups involved in the U.S.-Mexico border is human smuggling. Many of these groups control migration and charge each individual trying to enter the U.S. a fee, according to an article from AZPM.
The article cites a report from InSight Crime, which found that the Department of Homeland Security estimates that criminal organizations have earned around $500 million each year in recent years from migrant smuggling.
This may be an underestimate, however. The InSight Crime report found that migrants paid $10,000 to be transported from Central America or Mexico to a city in the United States, and if even half of the encountered migrants at the border paid the fee, the market would be valued at close to $12 billion.
On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on X and called out the Biden Administration’s border policies, noting a law he signed last month targeting human smuggling.
Human smuggling at our border puts our state—and nation—at risk.
Texas will not sit by and allow Biden’s open border policies to endanger lives.
Last month, I signed a new law instituting a mandatory ten-year minimum prison sentence for human smuggling in Texas. pic.twitter.com/Z38eigKxyU
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 9, 2024