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Human Smuggling to the US Generates Billions, Study Shows

Posted July 21, 2010 by Leslie Josephs
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, or UNODC, an estimated 3 million Latin Americans are smuggled across the Mexican border to the United States every year.

The trade is big business for smugglers, who assist 90 percent of these migrants, said the U.N. agency’s study, “The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment,” generating an estimated $6.6 billion for them annually.

“Because such ‘services’ are illegal, those who provide them have tremendous power over their charges, and abuses are commonplace,” said the UNODC. Around 97 percent of undocumented migrants enter the United States through the 1,250-mile southern border with Mexico, according to the report.

But the effectiveness of U.S. Border patrols also has the potential to spur people smuggling, since they deter independent border crossers.

“Enforcement has also pushed migrant flows into increasingly harsh terrains, such as eastern California and the Sonoran desert of Arizona, which may be the reason behind a growing number of detected migrant deaths,” said the report.

The UN and immigrant rights groups have long noted that the smugglers are victims, not criminals, unlike those who run the rings. But with an increased presence along the US-Mexico border in the coming months, particularly in Arizona, migrants, still lacking opportunities at home, may continue to look for alternative and, most likely, more perilous means to reach the United States.

“Because these services are illegal, those who provide them have tremendous power over their charges, and abuses are commonplace, particularly when the movement is clandestine. Many
die on their way to their destination, or are abandoned without resources en route. As with many other illegal transnational activities, efforts to stop illegal immigration can create opportunities for
organized criminals,” the U.N. reported.

Tags : arizona, border, border security, human trafficking, smuggling, united nations

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