Cartels offer to smuggle migrants over the US border for $200 each
By MaryAnn Martinez
May 25, 2023 5:06pm Updated
Thousands of migrants are still arriving at the border with Mexico hoping to get into the US, but since May 11 the government has put new rules in place banning people for five years if they are turned away at the border.
Unsure of their chances, many are waiting, which is where cartels are happy to step in and offer their illegal services.
Venezuelan Migrant Maria Coromoto, traveling with her daughter, said they had walked non-stop for a month to get to the US-Mexico border arriving in Ciudad Juarez six days ago.
She said smugglers frequently approach her and other migrants, offering to show them a hole in the border wall or a tunnel that can be used to sneak into nearby El Paso.
“They said it costs $200, but I don’t have any money,” she said, pointing to the clothes she had been paid to wash in order to buy food for the day. “I’m going to stick to the legal route. I have faith, I have faith everything’s going to work out.”
Being smuggled by cartels comes with risks greater than being caught by US agents — they often force migrants to smuggle drugs, kidnap or hold them for ransom, or cut off their fingers if they cannot pay.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz claimed earlier this month there were 60,000 migrants in the “immediate border area” on the Mexican side waiting to cross into the US.
Although the number of people attempting to cross the southern border each day has dropped from over 10,000 in the days before the rule change to around 4,000, shelters in Mexico and Customs and Border protection facilities on the US side of the border are still full. In El Paso, they claimed almost 2,500 in custody as of Wednesday.
Although an expected surge at the border hasn’t happened yet, Border Patrol are preparing for it. The Post witnessed a pile of riot gear, including helmets and shields, stacked just feet from the international boundary with Mexico.
https://nypost.com/2023/05/25/cartels-charge-200-to-smuggle-migrants-over-the-us-border/
