Federal prosecutors have started a nationwide crackdown on U.S. citizens who help transnational gangs smuggle illegal aliens into the country.
From Texas to New York, U.S. attorneys have begun prosecuting and, in some cases, closing cases against U.S. citizens who detained and transported migrants from the southern border across the country over the past nine months.
In that time, illegal immigration at the southern border has reached the highest level in 21 years. But with Border Patrol agents overwhelmed and pulled away to transport and process people in custody, many migrants manage to get across.
On Sept. 10, a Florida man was sentenced to six years in federal prison for driving a tractor-trailer that contained 149 noncitizens inside. The driver was arrested on Dec. 30 after attempting to pass through a Border Patrol checkpoint on I-35 headed from Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio. He expected to make $10,000 for running the group from the border.
12,000 MIGRANTS WAIT UNDER DEL RIO BRIDGE TO SURRENDER TO BORDER PATROL
A man from Long Island, New York, pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to transport people unlawfully in the country. The 53-year-old man was driving 42 noncitizens from Laredo to a northern U.S. location in June. Shortly after leaving, he was pulled over for a traffic violation and was taken into custody when police determined he had active warrants. Police on the scene opened the back of the truck and found dozens of people hiding inside.
In Brownsville, Texas, a 35-year-old man was ordered to serve 30 months in federal prison for holding 57 people, including two children without parents, in a one-bedroom hotel room in June.
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A Dallas man was sentenced on Sept. 7 to six and a half years in federal prison for conspiring to transport 126 noncitizens in a tractor-trailer that was 50 degrees inside. He was arrested on Jan. 6 while driving a truck from Laredo after he attempted to go through a Border Patrol checkpoint.
On Sept. 2, a Texas couple in their 20s were convicted for holding more than 50 noncitizens in hotel rooms in Pharr, Texas. They rented a U-Haul truck and used it to transport migrants between the hotel and pickup location. They also held 45 people in their home.
