A New Jersey-based migrant gang has helped dozens of illegal aliens gain entry to the United States over the border with Canada, a report by Daily Mail said on Sunday.
According to the report, the immigrant smuggling gang charges $6,000 per person and illegal border crossings from Canada have surged 500%. The gang allegedly illegally immigrated to the U.S. themselves before creating a sophisticated international ring for smuggling people into the U.S. from over the border with Canada.
The Daily Mail reported further that authorities have caught but then released human smugglers for the operation multiple times. The Mail called it “another border scandal occurring right under Americans’ noses.”
🚨REPORT: New Jersey-Based Migrant Gang: Smuggling Operation Charges $6,000 Per Person for Illegal Crossings from Canada – Ringleaders CROSSED U.S. Border
An underground people-smuggling ring, led by undocumented migrants released by ICE, has been operating since 2019, smuggling… pic.twitter.com/JoNSflvyQF
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) February 4, 2024
The U.S. has, however, apprehended two alleged ringleaders for the international scheme, and both are in the United States illegally. A third alleged leader remains at large in Canada, where authorities refuse to detain him, and individuals linked to them continue to smuggle people.
So far, the smuggling operation has moved dozens of illegal migrants into the U.S. using closely guarded secret tactics to sneak them over the border from Quebec to Vermont. The Daily Mail report said it may be hundreds that the group has smuggled into the United States.
Prosecutors say the ringleaders were involved in at least five smuggling attempts in Vermont to bring in “at least 25 migrants” to the country illegally. Runners told Border Patrol they conducted many more illegal crossings that did not alert authorities.
The OTHER border crisis: New Jersey-based smuggling gang run by illegal immigrants has helped dozens sneak into US from CANADA for $6,000 a head – amid 500% surge in crossings at northern frontier
The gang was run by migrants who entered the country illegally then established a… pic.twitter.com/DXvf9hsrLk
— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) February 4, 2024
They accomplish the scheme using technology: “They use the phones to research related topics, to select locations for crossings and pick-ups, and to navigate to those locations while driving or on foot,” an agent explained to a judge. “Cellular phones are often used to both guide and track the migrants when they illegally enter the country and look for the pick-up location.”
“With the huge asylum-seeker concentrations and with all of those people crossing the border and with the huge increase in the amount of enforcement that is going on on the southern border, it is probably [ … ] a lot easier to try to get in without inspection across the Canadian border,” CUNY Graduate Center immigration studies professor Philip Kasinitz said.
