As illegal immigrants continue to besiege the United States, smuggling cartels are said to be making $500 million per year smuggling illegal migrants into the country.
In a report by The Washington Times, monitored by National Daily, U.S Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen who disclosed this recently while outlining the scope of the problem for lawmakers in the US Congress, said the booming U.S. economy and lax American laws are enticing the flow northward.
Homeland Security declined to provide the numbers behind the calculation, but the department last year said migrants were paying an average of $8,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. — up significantly from a few years ago. Mexicans generally pay lower rated, and those from Asian countries often pay $25,000 or more for the trip.
“To be clear — human smuggling operations are lining the pockets of transnational criminals. They are not humanitarian endeavors,” ,” Nielsen was quoted to have told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a hearing called to review her department’s budget and policies.
National Daily gathered from the report that the money is split among the “coyotes,” or guides, who shepherd the migrants through Central America and Mexico to the border; the stash house operators and smugglers who transport them to their final destinations in the U.S.; and the major cartels that oversee all sides of the operation.
“This is not and should not be a partisan political issue. The past four presidents have pleaded with Congress to act on this security challenge,” she said. “But this administration is tired of waiting.”
Ms. Nielsen has announced a zero-tolerance policy at the border, saying every person attempting to illegally enter the U.S. or to make a bogus asylum claim will be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
According to the report, Democrats, meanwhile, have called the plan cruel. They say it will mean mothers who cross with their children will be prosecuted and separated from their children.
“They come here because their lives are not just difficult; in many cases their lives are horrendous,” said Sen. Thomas R. Carper, Delaware Democrat.
His fellow Democrats peppered Ms. Nielsen with questions about how families are being treated, whether Border Patrol agents are trained to minimize child trauma from the separation and the conditions those in custody are subjected to.
Sen. Kamala D. Harris, California Democrat, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Washington Democrat, introduced legislation Tuesday that would prevent Homeland Security from opening or expanding any more detention facilities and would impose more oversight on existing facilities.
She said people in detention face sexual abuse, pregnant women are denied care, and migrants can’t get in touch with lawyers. Some migrants have died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ms. Nielsen’s department is also battling charges of selective prosecution stemming from its handling of the migrant caravan that brought hundreds of people from Central America to the U.S. doorstep last month.
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