There is nothing new about human smuggling, even about human smuggling on a massive scale, as Police Chief William McManus explained after discovering 39 illegal immigrants packed into the back of a sweltering tractor trailer in a southwest side parking lot, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"This is not an isolated incident, this happens quite frequently," the Chief said. Fortunately there are people who survived, but this happens all the time.
"In fact, illegal immigrants have been found stuffed into 18 wheelers and other vehicles at a terrifying rate this summer.
Here are some recent examples from U.S. Border Patrol news releases:
July 21: three illegals from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico found in car in Arizona...two alleged smugglers arrested
July 19: Border Patrol rescues 11 people from desolate south Texas who they say were abandoned by smugglers. At least one had to be hospitalized for heat conditions
July 8: 16 illegals rescued by Border Patrol in two separate operations near Laredo who they say were abandoned by smugglers. They were from Mexico and El Salvador.
July 7: 72 people rescued from a trailer in Laredo. They were from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador.
"These criminal organizations view these individuals as mere commodities without regard for their safety," Gabriel Acosta, Laredo Sector Assistant Chief Gabriel Acosta said in a Border Patrol news release.
June 19: Border Patrol rescued 44 people stuffed into an 18 wheeler in Laredo...they were from Mexico and Guatemala.
What is considered the worst immigrant smuggling case in U.S. history happened in Victoria in 2003, where a trucker simply abandoned a tractor trailer with more than 70 illegal immigrants in it. 19 died.
Experts say human trafficking is on the increase for several reasons:
First, improvements made to border security over the past two decades have made the old fashioned 'swimming the Rio Grande' nearly impossible. Illegal immigrants need to expertise of smugglers to help them get around hardened checkpoints, Border Patrol barriers, and National Guard patrols.
Up until twenty years ago or so, the vast majority of people entering the U.S. illegally from Mexico were from the nation of Mexico. Many already had friends or relatives in the U.S., they spoke the language and were familiar with the culture, making it a lot easier for them to make the trip themselves. But today's immigrants are far more likely to be from Central America, and more and more from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Without any knowledge of the culture, the terrain, or even the language, they need help making the trip to the U.S. border.
Also, the Mexican drug cartels have lost much of their core business of smuglging drugs over the last decade, due to legalization of marijuana, changing drug usage patterns of Americans who increasingly favor Chinese made opioids over traditional Latin American products like marijuana and cocaine, and due to tightened border security. Getting into the business of human smuggling is more profitable for the cartels, because they don't have to manufacture, acquire, and transport a product in order to make a payoff.
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