Article Author:
Reuters
Ted Hesson and Laura Gottesdiener Christina Cook
Washington / Monterey — Dozens of immigrants die in a sultry tractor trailer this week, slipping through a border guard checkpoint A month ago on a Texas highway, another truck driver was on the same journey with 52 immigrants.
Roderick DeWayne Chisley stopped on December 17, 2021 and drove a stolen rig on the I-35 highway running north from Laredo to San Antonio. According to court documents, Mr Chisley said his payment for agreeing to drive the vehicle without question was $ 50,000.
According to experts, human smugglers are increasingly using 18-wheel trucks to move large numbers of migrants, and court records reviewed by Reuters (Chizley's). (Including incidents) details how the process took place. play.
Experts and US officials say criminal gangs can take advantage of perishable drivers, increased freight traffic that is difficult to scan, and a record number of immigrants across the United States.
Trafficking in tractor trailers has increased exponentially over the last decade, according to Craig Larrabee, a special agent in charge of the US Immigration and Customs (ICE) investigation department.
Authorities said they had investigated more than 1,000 trafficking cases from January to the present, but did not provide a breakdown by type of case.
Previously, more migrants were smuggled by "mama and pop" criminals in small cars, Mr. Lullaby said, but cross-border cartels are illegal. Profit is paramount because it has taken over the business.
"People are now completely treated as commodities," he said. "Each body represents an amount. It does not represent a family, father, son, mother or daughter."
Maximum profit
Increased around San Antonio, Texas Trafficking trends have been in the limelight this week after 53 immigrants were suffocated in a truck left next to I-35.
Although it looks like a general pattern, the victims of the tragedy had already traveled to the United States before boarding the truck to evade the US authorities inland, officials said.
In Chisley's 2021 case, courts said two Guatemalan immigrants illegally entered the United States across the Rio Grande and then boarded a trailer truck. According to the record.
Aristedes Jimenez, a former ICE employee in San Antonio, said smugglers recently gathered groups of immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into U.S. stashes and put them on trucks. He said he was carrying it. "Wait until they have enough people," Jimenez said. "They want maximum benefit."
The US Border Guard maintains a network of about 110 checkpoints along US roads, most of which are national borders. It is located 25 to 100 miles (40 to 160 km) inland.
Border guard arrests at these checkpoints account for only about 2% of the total detention of migrants, US government data show.
A truck carrying 53 dead migrants passed a checkpoint that lacked some of the high-tech equipment available at the border, Democrat Henry said. -Member Cuellar said. San Antonio.
Due to the heavy traffic on trucks, comprehensive surveillance has become a major challenge, and as the number of drivers a cartel may employ increases, Ernesto Gaytan Jr., Chairman of the Texas Truck Association, said. I am saying.
He said smugglers are trying to seduce drivers at state truck stops and offer thousands of dollars to transport migrants further north.
In 2021, more than 2.5 million trucks passed north through the port of entry in Laredo, Texas (157 miles (253 km) south of San Antonio), an increase of more than 50% 10 years ago. did.
As president of Laredo-based truck company SuperTransport International Ltd., which drives more than 200 trucks, Gaytan refuels drivers at Laredo truck stops. I banned that. This is to prevent them from being targeted by smugglers.
According to court documents, Chisley would have received about $ 1,000 per immigrant. A driver arrested within two weeks at the same checkpoint on I-35, with 18 migrants behind the truck, was expecting a similar payment rate, court documents in another case said. ..
In May, a federal jury in Laredo was convicted of illegally transporting immigrants in the country and faced up to 10 years in prison, according to the US Department of Justice. Chisley's lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
(Report by Ted Hesson of Washington, Laura Gottes Diener of Monterrey, Christina Cook of San Francisco, additional report by Jason Voorhees of San Antonio and Randy Love of New York, Mica Rosenberg Edited by Raju Gopara Krishnan)