MCALLEN, Texas.
- Joe Biden's administration plans to
revoke travel permits, suspend business permits and freeze bank accounts
for anyone with ties to coyote networks that traffic immigrants on their way to the United States.
It is Operation Sentinel and its "objective is to alter all facets of the logistical networks of these criminal organizations", said the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, in a call with journalists. "These organizations put their economic profits ahead of the human life, which has devastating consequences, ”he added.
Border agents
have rescued 4,766 migrants abandoned on the southern border
so far in fiscal year 2021, adding to the 5,232 migrants found in the same conditions in the previous period, according to federal government figures.
As an example they provided the cases of the two girls thrown through the border wall by a coyote, or Wilton, the minor who was found alone and abandoned by a border agent, and whose words asking for help have become an emblem of the crisis of minor migrants.
Border Patrol images of two migrant children thrown from the border wallNoticias Telemundo
[This is how coyotes mock the Border Patrol and this is what they charge for a trip]
"Transnational criminal organizations routinely try to get people into groups, but they often
end up abandoning women and children when they can't keep up with the group,
" said Troy Miller, who is interim head of the Customs Office. and Border Protection (CBP).
“These migrants are abandoned in remote and dangerous areas, and they are usually left without food and water.
These organizations are complicit in
sexual assault, human trafficking and the abandonment of young children
, which we routinely encounter, ”he added.
The head of CBP said these abandonments leave the migrants "at risk of dying."
Border agents found
250 dead migrants en route in fiscal year 2020
, according to the federal government.
They found at least 300 bodies in the past year, despite policies to deter asylum seekers at ports of entry or to send them back to Mexico.
Since 2016, such high numbers of migrant bodies have not been found by federal authorities.
["If they kill you, who will claim you?": Migrants abandoned by coyotes or massacred by drug traffickers]
The Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) also warned that coyote networks are leading some migrants into situations of
prostitution, domestic servitude and child exploitation
.
The Department of Homeland Security will join forces with the Department of Homeland Security, the consulates, the DEA and the FBI.
And they will work together with the Mexican and Central American authorities, they assured, although they did not detail how.
Mayorkas promised that the plan will not only focus on the leaders of transnational organizations, but also on the coyotes and guides who move migrants from the ground.
"We are going to focus on each level of the organizations," he said.
Asked by Noticias Telemundo, Mayorkas said that U and T visas can protect migrants who testify against traffickers, but did not detail whether they will increase visa quotas or motivate victims in any other way to give the step in criminal investigations.
Mayorkas did say that he is working on streamlining visa processes that protect victims, who currently accumulate years of delays.
The State Department said that, under Operation Sentinel, more than a hundred visas have already been revoked.
The Texas state government, critical of Biden's immigration management, warned in recent weeks of threats that do not come only from Mexico and Central America.
Spokespersons for the Texas Department of Public Safety assure that criminal organizations are recruiting through social networks within the country, and are looking for
drivers in cities like San Antonio and Houston to transport undocumented immigrants
from the border to the interior of the country.
The correspondent
Cristina Londoño
collaborated in the reporting of this note.
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