US arrests migrants for human trafficking
WASHINGTON, July 23, (Agencies): US officials have made almost 200 arrests and seized more than $625,000 in illicit profits in a monthlong crackdown on human smuggling in response to an influx of illegal immigration into Texas, the Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the campaign underscored the government’s pledge that US borders were not open to illlegal immigration “and that if you enter the United States illegally, we will send you back”.
“Equally important, those who prey upon migrants for financial gain will be targeted, arrested, and prosecuted,” he added in a statement.
“We are focusing on the pocketbooks of these human smugglers, including their money laundering activities in the United States - working with our Mexican and Central American partners to track, interdict, and seize the money flowing through Mexico and Central America.”
Johnson said the government sent extra personnel to Texas’ Rio Grande Valley in late June to combat human smuggling operations on the southwest US border.
“Less than a month into this operation, 192 smugglers and their associates have already been arrested on criminal coming months. Mikulski said she would formally unveil the legislation Wednesday. “Based on a review of what is needed in calendar year 2014 to meet needs at the border, the bill reduces the president’s request by $1 billion,” Mikulski said in a statement.
Reflecting Democratic concerns about a fair legal process for the child migrants, the legislation would increase Obama’s request in that area, paying for 50 immigration judges rather than the 40 he sought, and spending $50 million for legal services for the children where he asked for $15 million.
But in a conference call with governors from across the US, Obama and charges, more than 501 undocumented immigrants have been taken into custody and more than $625,000 in illicit profits have been seized from 288 bank accounts held by human smuggling and drug trafficking organizations,” the secretary said.
Immigration enforcement authorities, it said, “will continue to prioritize cases involving smuggling or transporting of undocumented individuals, including minors, into the United States.”
The Obama administration has been seeking to deal with a surge of undocumented children across the southern border.
During the nine months ending June 30, more than 57,000 children were detained at the US-Mexico border, most from Central America, and double last year’s count, according to US government data.
President Barack Obama meets the leaders of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador on Friday to discuss cooperation in dealing with the flow of child migrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the would-be people traffickers were detained along with more than 501 undocumented migrants, even as the United States scrambles to curb illegal immigration by thousands of unaccompanied minors. top officials said Congress needs “to fully fund our supplemental request,” the White House said, warning that inaction would soon render border agents and immigration courts unable to do their jobs.
At issue is a 2008 trafficking victims law that guarantees judicial hearings for unaccompanied youths arriving here from Central America. In practice, the policy allows them to stay in this country for years because of major backlogs in the immigration court system.
Republicans want the law changed so that unaccompanied Central American children can be treated like those from Mexico, who can be
MEXICO
The operation, from June 23 to July 22, underscores “the progress of ongoing enforcement efforts by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the United States Department of Justice to target human smuggling networks in the Rio Grande Valley,” Johnson said in a statement.
“We have continued to stress that our borders are not open to illegal migration and that if you enter the United States illegally, we will send you back,” Johnson said.
Also: CITY: Human groups on Tuesday said that USbound migrants passing through Mexico routinely face abuses, discrimination and even torture.
With the United States gearing efforts to curb a surge of unaccompanied minors mostly from Central America, human rights groups here aired concerns about bad treatment migrants young and old alike face in Mexico.
US-bound “migrants may face jailing, accused of crimes they never committed” and legal rights, such as the right to consular assistance, “essentially almost do not exist where they are concerned,” said Denise Gonzalez of the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center. sent back by Border Patrol agents unless they can demonstrate a fear of return that necessitates further screening. Republicans say that’s the only way to send a message to parents in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala that there’s no point in sending their kids on the arduous journey north.
Senate Democrats’ legislation puts them on a collision course with Republicans who control the House. They, too, have described plans to dramatically scale back Obama’s spending request, but like Republicans in the Senate, they have made changes to the 2008 trafficking victims law a condition for approving any money.