{"id":749,"date":"2009-05-07T08:20:53","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T14:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=749"},"modified":"2009-05-07T08:20:53","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T14:20:53","slug":"border-smuggling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/05\/07\/border-smuggling\/","title":{"rendered":"border smuggling"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Chronicle<\/a> reported yesterday on the increasingly brazen tactics for crossing into the United States from Mexico. The Chronicle reports, “U.S. Border Patrol agent John Lopez has seen it all: Men hiding in tiny holes in the ground, in car trunks and behind seat backs. He\u2019s even captured an illegal immigrant hiding in a suitcase. ‘You don\u2019t expect to find someone in a suitcase. You never expect that,’ said Lopez, who is based in the Rio Grande Valley.”<\/p>\n

These attempts to sneak people and drugs across the border are constantly changing and are often increasingly harmful to the immigrants, an alarming trend illustrated in several recent incidents.<\/p>\n

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\u2022\u00a0In Presidio County along the Texas-Mexico border, a man trained illegal immigrants who had just crossed the border to fake illnesses and call 911. Unwitting ambulance attendants took them to an Alpine hospital beyond the Border Patrol checkpoint near Marfa. The immigrants would refuse treatment and run away. Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela, 38, was arrested in March and pled guilty to smuggling charges in the scheme.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0In the past few months, officials have intercepted three ultralight aircrafts attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The small planes fly so low they evade radar and have been particularly active on the Arizona-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0In California, smugglers meticulously painted vehicles to resemble DHL package delivery trucks and a company contracted to help build the border fence. They used the vehicles to transport illegal immigrants to the U.S. in March and April. Some people in the construction company truck wore reflective vests and hard hats.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But the debate about reform versus enforcement is a complex one, and the Houston Chronicle calls upon sociologist Nestor Rodriguez, who has studied these migrants based at the University of Texas.<\/p>\n

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Immigrant rights advocates warn that it\u2019s flawed and dangerous to put more focus on enforcement instead of reform. As it becomes more difficult to cross the border, people will take extreme risks, said Jennifer Allen, executive director of Arizona\u2019s Border Action Network.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have to rely on smuggling networks. This means that smuggling networks continue to grow and become more costly, and they become more professionalized,\u201d Allen said, adding that she expects smuggling to increase in remote areas.<\/p>\n

Said Nestor Rodriguez, a sociology professor at the University of Texas: \u201cWhat I have learned from talking with migrants is that smugglers try a variety of old and new approaches to cross the border, so I don\u2019t think there is just one approach.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And another sociologist weighs in…<\/p>\n

\n

Unless officials reform immigration laws, though, it doesn\u2019t matter whether border officials step up enforcement, said David Spener, a sociology professor at Trinity University in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the past is prologue, this will just mean more danger for migrants and more risky crossings,\u201d Spener said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday on the increasingly brazen tactics for crossing into the United States from Mexico. The Chronicle reports, “U.S. Border Patrol agent John Lopez has seen it all: Men hiding in tiny holes in the ground, in car trunks and behind seat backs. He\u2019s even captured an illegal immigrant hiding in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[39116,39113,89],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-crime","tag-health","tag-immigration"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}