Posted on 07/20/2003 9:34:03 AM PDT by JackelopeBreeder
First in a series
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
The battered pink and green bus pulls into a vacant lot at dawn near a neon-lit burrito joint and a cluster of factories. Several dozen men pile out, their clothes wrinkled and their faces covered with stubble, each carrying a tiny sack of belongings.
Within seconds, a dozen waiting cabbies herd the men into taxis and drive off to deposit them at cheap hotels and homes scattered across this rough-and-tumble border city.
The action appears routine. But you won't find this site, two miles from the city bus station, in any tourist guide. The bus stop is one of several in Ciudad Juárez run by human smugglers. The buses stopping here - sometimes a half-dozen a day - are chartered by human smugglers. And the passengers they unload here are undocumented immigrants from across Latin America bound for U.S. destinations from Los Angeles to Long Island.
The bus stop is just one link in the increasingly sophisticated and profitable network of immigrant smuggling, a business that has come under harsh scrutiny since mid-May, when 19 undocumented Mexicans and Central Americans died of heat and lack of oxygen after a smuggler's driver abandoned them in a locked tractor trailer in Victoria, Texas.
Once the work of individuals or small groups, human smuggling across the Mexico-U.S. border has exploded into a multibillion-dollar industry controlled by a handful of international syndicates whose vast size and fluid structure make them tough to crack. Last year, smugglers moved an estimated 1 million undocumented foreigners from nearly 100 countries into the United States through Mexico, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
"As U.S. crackdowns along its borders make illegal crossings increasingly difficult and dangerous, demand for such groups has skyrocketed, along with their fees. Last year, the industry grossed $9.5 billion, according to U.S. immigration officials."
Anybody here really think the Mexican smuggling cartels are gonna willingly walk away from that pot of money? Read the full article.
I would BUT I don't like my blood pressure going sky high and it's too early to start drinking! If I was sane I wouldn't read any of these illegal alien related articles. Doing so just fuels my anger.
I would say it's more the fault of Mexico's policies. President Fox actually wants the Mexican people to leave Mexico for good ---- his plan for the economy is to do nothing just so they will leave, ridding his country of it's poor people and with hopes they'll send money back for a while. But our government also seems to believe the US taxpayer can support an endless stream of indigent, illiterate people and is supporting this with increasing government programs and handouts.
Of course they don't ---- but that's not where they should be doing the checking ---they need to stop them at the real border, Americans shouldn't have to go through inspection stations inside their own country. They aren't stopping them at the real border for obvious reasons ---they don't want to. How many future welfare mothers just get a visitor pass, come over to the county hospitals along the border, give birth and then stay forever living the easy life of government handouts? Why pay a smuggler when it's easier the semi-legal way?
And above all, the businesses that hire these illegals really should be made to pay dearly for their selfish and destructive practices. The risks have to outweigh the potential benefits, otherwise it'll never stop.
--Boris
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.