Border Patrol, Human Smuggling and Human Trafficking, Why We Need A Wall

Human Smuggling and Human Trafficking are big business.  

Many human smuggling rings are connected to cartels, as are human trafficking rings. While human smuggling and human trafficking are defined very differently, they are both businesses built by criminals to make money on the backs of desperate and/or vulnerable people, many of them children. Estimates are that migrant smuggling is worth about 10 billion or more per year, though the information on smuggling data is unreliable due to non reporting or data collection since these activities are mostly illegal. It is also known that human smuggling quite often leads to human trafficking, as the smugglers will sell those they are smuggling to others for sexual or other purposes including indentured servitude.

Information on human trafficking is difficult to obtain as well. Human trafficking results in approximately 1.2 million children per year being trafficked world wide, including approximately 200,000 U.S. children in the sex industry. Total numbers for international human trafficking reach a staggering 800,000 men women and children who are trafficked internationally each year, some for forced labor and others for sex.

"The large-scale smuggling of migrants across international borders has developed into a global threat to migration governance. Many migrants resort to using migrant smugglers when they do not have the option to travel in a regular manner. Consequently, migrant smugglers have become an integral part of the irregular migration journey resulting in significant profits for criminal networks. Once paid, smugglers often have little or no interest in migrants' well being, leaving them particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. All too often, migrants also pay with their lives: they suffocate in containers, perish in deserts or drown at sea."

 - International Organization for Migration

12 Human Smuggling Stash Houses Busted near Texas Border in 10 Days 

"Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents disrupted 12 human smuggling stash house operations during a ten-day period ending August 27. The raids on the stash houses led to the arrest of 229 migrants.

"Officials report the last incident of this series of raids occurred on August 27 when Laredo South Station Border Patrol agents and Laredo Police Department officers began surveillance on a suspected human smuggling stash house on Juarez Avenue in the city of Laredo, Texas. While watching the house, a Laredo police officer observed a person sneaking through a hole in the fence to gain access to the house. The officers detained the man and Border Patrol agents conducted an immigration interview, according to information obtained from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

"The agents determined the intercepted man to be a Mexican national illegally present in the U.S. They arrested the man for an immigration violation.

"The LPD officers then conducted a welfare check on the residence located in a well-known human smuggling area of the city.

"After making entry into the home, Border Patrol agents found 20 people packed into the home. "None were wearing any personal protective equipment," Laredo Sector officials said in a written statement. The agents conducted immigration interviews and identified all 20 as illegal aliens from Mexico and Guatemala. The agents took all 20 into custody pending further investigation.

"Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew J. Hudak stated, "Over the past ten days, Laredo Sector agents and our partners have encountered and arrested 229 aliens in 12 stash houses within the City of Laredo. As the number of illegal aliens testing positive for COVID-19 increases, these stash houses represent an increasingly significant threat to our agents, to public health, and to our health care system and our health care professionals."

"Breitbart Texas' Jaeson Jones reported that more than 160 cartel-connected human smuggling stash houses have been busted by Border Patrol agents in South Texas since the beginning of the current fiscal year in October 2019.

"Jones reported:

"Human smuggling networks routinely treat migrants as a commodity. As seen in this video posted on August 12^th, 2020 by Commissioner Morgan where you get to see a video recorded by a smuggler having no concern for human beings in terrible conditions.

"Human smugglers often commit the crimes of human trafficking as well. As migrants are being smuggled it is common for smugglers to take advantage of them through force, fraud, and coercion. The smugglers also subject migrants to forced sex, labor, and indentured servitude. These crimes are routinely discussed by Commission Mark Morgan at his monthly meetings with the press from the Reagan building in Washington.

"Breitbart Texas regularly reports on a case-by-case basis about the efforts by Border Patrol agents along with state and local law enforcement officers to disrupt and shut down these cartel-connected human smuggling operations carried out on U.S. soil."

 - Bob Price

Border Patrol Agents Make Another Rescue from Dangerous Train Conditions 

"LAREDO, Texas – U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Hebbronville Station rescued several individuals as they dangerously attempted to further their entry into the United States by train east of Hebbronville, Texas.

"During a routine freight train check shortly after noon on September 3, agents observed several individuals jumping off a grain hopper train car into the nearby brush. Agents quickly responded and discovered 11 individuals inside the grain hopper where the temperature was recorded as being 106.3 degrees Fahrenheit. None had any personal protective equipment (PPE). As agents quickly pulled the individuals out of the hopper, they noticed one was disoriented and in need of medical attention. He lost consciousness while on top of the railroad car.

"Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) immediately began treating the individual to stabilize him. EMTs determined that the individual needed further medical attention and requested Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to airlift the individual to the nearest hospital. The individual, who had entered illegally into the United States from the country of Mexico, is currently being treated at a local hospital's intensive care unit. It was later discovered that the individual also tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. He remains in Border Patrol custody pending his recovery.

"The remaining 10 individuals were also determined to be in the United States illegally from the country of Mexico and taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol.

"The Laredo Sector Border Patrol continues to warn against the dangers of people crossing illegally into the United States and furthering their entry through dangerous and hazardous means. Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew J. Hudak said, "If not for the lifesaving efforts of these agents, the outcome would have been more tragic. Our agents put their safety at risk every day to enforce our laws and often have to rescue those who have violated the law."

"With a noted increase in COVID-19 infections among detainees, smugglers continue showing their lack of regard for the safety of the people they exploit by placing them in compromising, cramped spaces without regard to high temperatures, PPE, or means of escape. In doing so, not only do they endanger those being smuggled, but they also endanger our agents and communities. The Laredo Sector Border Patrol is committed to the Mission of the agency to protect the American people by safeguarding our borders and enhancing the Nation's economic prosperity.

"To report suspicious activity such as alien and/or drug smuggling, download the "USBP Laredo Sector" App or contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free at 1-800-343-1994. If you see something, please say something. You can also follow us on our social media platforms on Twitter and Instagram @usbpchieflrt and @usbpdepchieflrt and on Facebook at US Border Patrol Laredo Sector. "

Tim Ballard: I've fought sex trafficking at the border. This is why we need a wall 

"Critics have recently rejected the idea that building, expanding or strengthening a barrier or "wall" along our southern border would do anything to combat sex trafficking. Though many of these critics do noble work in various capacities, even in the human trafficking space, they all have one thing in common: they have never utilized the wall to rescue sex trafficking victims and therefore they do not understand its power for good, its power to rescue trafficked children.

"In contrast to the critics, I worked 12 years as a special agent/undercover operator for Homeland Security Investigations, 10 of which included a tour combating sex trafficking on the southern border. Since that time I have continued the fight as CEO of the anti-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad, or O.U.R. Furthermore, I have worked closely with the heads of every U.S. agency whose job it is to find and rescue children being trafficked across the southern border. In fact, I was with them all in the White House just a few days ago discussing how border barriers help combat trafficking.

"Altogether, we are the ones — and the only ones — who have utilized or are utilizing the border wall to rescue children. We are the experts. And we all agree that the building, expansion and strengthening of the border wall has been one of many effective tools, and will continue to be an effective tool, in the rescuing of trafficked children.

"The United States is one of the highest consumers of child sex in the world. It is also one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Simple economics tells us what follows. Child traffickers, who currently control millions of enslaved children worldwide, want to get these children into the United States where they can force them into this lucrative illicit market. The State Department reports that around 10,000 children are smuggled into the U.S. annually and forced into the commercial sex trade. Add adults, and that number almost doubles. And when these evil actors act, we don't want to lose the opportunity to stop them and liberate their captives. The wall gives us an opportunity to do just that.

"The story of one survivor of this transaction — let's call her "Liliana" — illustrates the point. Liliana was kidnapped at age 11 from her village in Central America. After two years of grooming her for commercial sex, she was taken by her captors across the southern border at a location where no wall existed (approximately 70 percent of the border is wall-less). Her traffickers easily transported her to New York City, where she was raped for money up to 30-40 times a day for five years. She eventually escaped and my foundation is now caring for her as she prepares to testify in federal court against her captors. In accordance with U.S. laws, as a survivor of sex trafficking in America, Liliana has been granted legal status and will soon be a U.S. citizen. (The U.S. Attorney's Office has requested that we not share more details about this case until the trial is completed later this year).

"Having reflected on her tragic plight, Liliana has recently weighed in on the current national debate. "Had there been a wall for me," she declared, "my captors would have been forced to take me to a port of entry. A U.S. officer might have seen my distress. I might have yelled out to them. I am currently working with Homeland Security agents on my case. I love them. I think they would have rescued me at the port of entry."

"Which brings us to another confusing point the critics continue to make. The wall is insignificant, they say, because traffickers don't smuggle their children through wall-less sections of the border; rather, they take them through the ports of entry, for that is where the majority of arrests occur. (Do the critics also believe that drivers speed only in places where there happen to be great hiding places for police vehicles?)

"Their argument illustrates how poorly they understand border enforcement. They tend to see ports of entry and the wall as separate entities. As long as you have ports of entry, they declare, you don't need an extended wall. For those of us who have worked the border, we know that walls and ports of entry are not independent of each other. Rather, they act in tandem. If there were no walls, just stand-alone entry gates scattered every several hundred miles across the almost-2,000-mile border, do the critics really believe there would be as many arrests at these ports of entry? Do they believe traffickers would bring their enslaved children and their drugs to these small, stand-alone gates, while ignoring the vast, wide-open, unenforced space?

"Their arguments about arrests at ports of entry actually prove our model. We want to rescue kids at the ports of entry. We want to seize drugs there. That is our whole point. But we need a wall to force them there. We need the well-armed and well-equipped ports of entry to be their only option. This "only-option" approach, of course, requires more than a wall. It also requires border agents, drones, sensors and tunnel detection technology.

"The wall then, with its smart technology attached, becomes, in and of itself, an active law enforcement operation to facilitate arrests and rescues at the ports of entry. If the wall expanded the length of the southern border, imagine how many more children would be pushed through the ports of entry and subsequently rescued instead of being brought through where the rescuer can't see, where law enforcement can't easily intervene. (And if the critics are delusional enough to believe that the only children being trafficked into the United States are the ones we catch at the ports of entry, I will easily refute that idea below).

"Furthermore, the existence of a wall acts as a deterrent. It disincentivizes some traffickers from kidnapping and smuggling in the first place. If they can't get in easily, they won't try. That keeps kids safe. But for those who will still be kidnapped, smuggled and trafficked, the wall provides hope for them.

"For example, on July 3, 2006, my team and I rescued a 5 year-old boy. The boy had been kidnapped by American trafficker and child pornographer Earl Buchanan. Buchanan kidnapped and sexually abused his foreign-born victims, while filming his grotesque acts. Fortunately for this boy, and the 11 other children we subsequently rescued from his clutches, there is a significant border wall between Mexicali, Mexico (where he took the child) and Calexico, California. Buchanan was compelled to take his chances at the Calexico Port of Entry, which is armed with high-tech monitoring equipment and well-trained officers, who look into the eyes of every person seeking entry. Not surprisingly, Buchanan was singled out and arrested for kidnapping and trafficking. He was later convicted (Case 06CR1612-H). The boy is now breathing free with a loving family in America, thanks to the wall, which did its job.

"The critics try to distract from the horrific plight of trafficking victims brought through the southern border by pointing out the fact that many (they like to imply most or all) victims are trafficked through airports, their captors utilizing passports and visas and abusing immigration laws. I agree with the critics that this happens and I applaud their efforts to point out the incidences and the immigration loopholes (in guest-worker programs, for example) that need to be fixed. But why ignore the children suffering through the southern border? Why act as though traffickers only use the means the critics are comfortable talking about? Why ignore or minimize child victimhood anywhere?

"I know many girls who came in like me," Liliana says. "Why are the people who claim to want to help victims ignoring me and girls like me? We know a wall could have saved us. We understand, why don't they? More kids will be hurt if we believe them." Liliana, who has met with and told her story to Ivanka Trump, as well as members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, is working on her autobiography, which will release once her case is closed.

"Paola Felix is a former Mexican congresswoman and current senior Mexican administration official working on anti-trafficking policies for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. After studying what the so-called experts have said about how a wall does little to stop child trafficking into the United States, Felix declared, "It is very disappointing to me that people in the United States who claim to be anti-trafficking advocates would ignore or downplay the many Hispanic children being smuggled into the United States outside of legal ports of entry and forced into the hell of sex slavery. Mexican authorities have uncovered at least 19 different land-based smuggling routes where victims are taken and trafficked for sex in the United States. Downplaying the crisis with disinformation puts our children in grave danger. It discourages U.S. officials from employing every tactic available to rescue them during the small window of time that they can — that is, while they are being crossed into the United States. After that they are gone, maybe forever."

"Why are the people who claim to want to help victims ignoring me and girls like me? We know a wall could have saved us. We understand, why don't they?" – Liliana, a child trafficking survivor

"Former Mexican congresswoman and leading anti-trafficking advocate Rosie Orozco agrees. "There is a horrific child trafficking ring from Tenancingo, Mexico, to New York City," explained Orozco. "Please, America," she pleads, "watch the documentary by Fusion productions called Tenancingo to New York. Please do not take the tools away that you need to rescue our children while they are smuggled into your country and placed into the evil hands of your pedophiles."

"Incidentally, just a few weeks ago, five members of a Tenancingo trafficking organization were sentenced in U.S. federal court to more than 20 years each for sex-trafficking children into the United States. During our briefing in the White House last week, HSI Special Agent Anthony Scandiffo testified that these gangs put their victims facedown on rafts and took them across the river, or drove them in the dead of night through the desert, taking them from safe house to safe house until they reached their final destination: sex slavery in Queens, New York.

"If the critics need further proof of the crisis flowing through the southern border, we would refer them to official DHS data. Of the migrant children who have passed illegally through the southern borders and ended up in the care of U.S. officials, 10,000 came alone. "Which means," according to DHS Secretary Nielsen, "10,000 of those kids were sent here, without a parent, without a legal guardian, in the hands of smugglers, in the hands of traffickers."

"Several anti-trafficking cases I have personally worked along the border shine additional light on the issue. In March 2011, we obtained intelligence that U.S. resident Leonel Gonzalez was attempting to smuggle children into the United States from Mexicali, Mexico, for the purposes of selling them to Americans for sex. We learned that, because of the giant wall separating Mexicali and the United States, he was having a hard time figuring out a way to get them in. We preempted his actions by sending undercover operators posing as American traffickers to negotiate with him. I personally led the undercover team on this operation. Thanks to the wall in place, it bought us time to coordinate with Mexican authorities, who arrested the Mexican traffickers and liberated the children who were being held in a house near the border. The U.S. government arrested Gonzalez and charged him with 18 USC 1591(a) Sex Trafficking of Children (Case 11CR1192). He pled guilty and went to jail.

"In May 2012, our team at Homeland Security Investigation, along with local authorities, rescued a 14-year-old girl who had been smuggled into Texas outside of a port of entry. The American trafficker who kidnapped her and sold her for sex was later arrested and convicted (Case 12CR2259). Unfortunately, there was no significant wall or barrier that might have pushed the child to be brought through a port of entry, where her chances of being rescued before being sex trafficked inside the United States would have increased exponentially.

"In another case from March 2013, we learned about a group of traffickers near San Pedro Sula, Honduras (where the current caravan to the U.S. originated) that had kidnapped seven children and planned to smuggle them through the wall-less portion of the border and then sell them for sex in America. Since we knew we would easily lose them on their trafficking route, especially since there would be no wall to control their movements, we acted fast. Posing as an American buyer, I went undercover and met the traffickers in Puerto Cortes, Honduras. I accepted their offer to sell me the children then and there. (I told the traffickers I would fly the children into the United States via private airplane). With the deal made and the transfer of money complete, the traffickers were arrested by Honduran authorities. Convictions followed. The children were liberated.

"In this case, since there was no wall where they were planning on moving the kids into our country, we had to forward-deploy and, in essence, become the wall ourselves. Fortunately it worked, but it was very difficult to coordinate and execute, and we admit we were lucky to stumble upon the lead in the first place. It's like catching flies with chopsticks. We will get some, but we will miss the majority. If only we had a wall as a constant backup plan. Then there would always be that last hope that we could rescue the children at the ports of entry.

"Each of these cases demonstrate how the wall helped. When it was in play, we were able to preempt most of the abuse and make arrests quickly. When there was no wall, we weren't able to rescue them in an easy or a timely manner, and unnecessary abuse followed. And of course, we cringe when we think of the thousands that nobody saw, that are living a life of sex slavery somewhere in our country right now amidst the millions upon millions of undocumented migrants. Children with no registered identity, easily manipulated, and always vulnerable to the black market of illicit sex.

"I could go on and on with cases my team and I have personally worked. (And I was just one agent of hundreds working these cases every day). But how many cases do the critics need before they realize the crisis? Frankly, for me, if only one child could be rescued from a life of rape, it would be worth the cost of every tactic and technique, to include a wall. Do the critics agree? Or do they believe that, though I've demonstrated that the wall has helped rescue victims, whatever they don't like about the wall is more important than a number of children being raped for money in America? What is that number for them? We would remind the critics that the cost of the wall as part of the larger budget is the equivalent of asking for $57 out of an annual budget of $44,070. What is a child's life worth to the critic?

"If you paid attention to the dates associated with each case I described, you will also note that they spanned through three U.S. administrations, representing both major political parties. In each instance, with the changing of the guard, our efforts and strategies did not vary in the least. Our opinions and use of the wall and ports of entry as an enforcement and rescue tool was the same in 2006 as it was in 2012 and as it is now. This is not political in any way. It is simply a strategy — one of many tools in our toolbox — that we know has saved children. And we cannot abandon it or deny it, for if we do we are abandoning and denying those children who are relying on us, often as their last hope.

"We plead with those critics of the wall to consider their real, lived experiences. We ask them to honestly consider whether or not they have ever run rescue operations along the border and truly understand how the complexities of border operations function in the real world. We ask them to consider whether or not they have ever utilized the wall and accompanying ports of entry to rescue children. We ask them to consider why every agency and organization who has carried out child rescue operations at the border — the experts — support the building and construction of a wall or barrier. And finally, we ask them why — though they may be great advocates for anti-trafficking efforts in areas that don't include border interdiction — why they would gamble with the lives of children by assuming knowledge and experience they don't have and then actively work to deny law enforcement a powerful tool that demonstrably liberates captive children."

Border Patrol finds missing Texas girl at checkpoint on Interstate 35 

:U.S. Border Patrol agents found a missing girl in a big-rig truck more than 400 miles from her home, authorities said Friday.

"They stopped the truck at a checkpoint on Interstate 35 in Laredo, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, then found the girl hidden inside.

"Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents continue to be diligent every day in protecting the safety of our citizens and preventing potential tragedy," sector agents posted on Facebook after announcing they found the girl.

"They stopped the truck at a checkpoint on Interstate 35 in Laredo, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border, then found the girl hidden inside.

"Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents continue to be diligent every day in protecting the safety of our citizens and preventing potential tragedy," sector agents posted on Facebook after announcing they found the girl.

"Meanwhile, a Texas law passed in 2019 that aims to combat human trafficking took effect Tuesday. H.B. 2059 requires certain health care practitioners to undergo training to help them identify signs of trafficking.

"The idea is to enable them to notice and report potential trafficking situations when victims are not forthcoming, out of fear or other reasons.

"Texas saw more than 1,000 human trafficking cases reported in 2019, according to the Human Trafficking Hotline. More than 900 involved female victims.

"Anyone who suspects human trafficking can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888."

Michael Ruiz - Fox News

The Cisco Police Department released this statement which can be found on their Facebook page; 

"Update on the recent alleged sex trafficking situation. The case as it stands right now is resolved and Cisco Police Department is no longer actively investigating. The matter has been turned over to appropriate authorities who have conducted their investigation and all charges, if any, that can be filed will be accomplished by those agencies. The second female that was in the truck is safe and accounted for. The alleged victim that jumped from the truck is safe. We thank each one who has engaged themselves in an attempt to help. This will be the only information released by Cisco Police Department due to the sensitivity of this incident."