TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up efforts to target human smuggling operations exploiting America's northern border, officials announced Thursday, citing growing concerns about sophisticated criminal networks that transport migrants for profit expanding beyond the southern border.
The expansion of Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created in 2021 to investigate and prosecute human smuggling groups, is aimed at cracking down on operations often linked to cartels that can expose migrants to exploitation and abuse. In one recently charged case, authorities allege children were given THC-laced candy in order to sedate them as they were being taken across the border.
“Let me be clear: If you smuggle human beings, you will be found, you will be prosecuted and you will be brought to justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters during a visit to Tampa, Florida, on Thursday.
Joint Task Force Alpha, which has brought hundreds of cases since its creation, is now targeting the northern border by having prosecutors from the Justice Department’s criminal division work with U.S. attorneys’ offices in Vermont and the Northern District of New York to investigate and bring cases, officials said.
It's the latest effort by the Justice Department to thwart smuggling, which can have deadly consequences. In 2022, 53 immigrants died in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in the nation's deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. Two smugglers convicted of federal charges in connection with the deaths were sentenced in June to life in prison.
Four cases recently charged by the department highlight how smugglers rake in huge profits sneaking migrants into the U.S. In one case, charging 12 people, prosecutors say migrants were charged as much as $40,000 and more than $7 million in Zelle payments were exchanged. In another case, prosecutors charged a woman accused of transporting migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador who had crossed over from Canada.
“They exploit those people who are desperate and misguided enough to try to enter the country illegally,” said Michael Drescher, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont. “On the northern border, such illegal crossings frequently involve trekking through forests and swamps in inhospitable and dangerous circumstances.”
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