The number of Bangladeshi nationals apprehended after illegally crossing from Mexico into Laredo, Texas, has grown dramatically over the past two years from just one person in fiscal year 2016 to more than 400 so far this year, a trend one border official attributed to poverty in Bangladesh.
Eight more Bangladeshi citizens were taken into custody by federal agents patrolling the border on Sunday, bringing this year’s total to 400, a Border Patrol spokesman for the Laredo Sector in south-central Texas told the Washington Examiner.
Through roughly the first six months of fiscal year 2018, 183 Bangladeshis were apprehended by Laredo agents, more than the total number apprehended in all of 2017. Apprehensions more than doubled from 183 between April and July, even though apprehensions usually drop during the summer months.
Bangladeshis still make up a small portion of the hundreds of thousands of people apprehended at the border each year. But Laredo Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Gabriel Acosta told the Washington Examiner that Bangladeshis are enticed by both push and pull factors.
The poor economy in their home country is a push factor, and they are going to the U.S. to “take advantage of immigration laws here.”
But being smuggled to the U.S. is not cheap. Bangladeshis pay smuggling organizations up to $27,000 per person, Acosta explained.
They will fly to South America, where the smuggling organizations who have organized their trips have infrastructure and contacts in place to begin moving them north.
Acosta said Laredo happens to be where the trafficking organization has people in place to get those being smuggled into the U.S.
“Once they turn themselves in, they claim asylum. They have also been coached what to say. After some time in DHS custody, they are given a court date and released. Most are never seen again,” he added.
