A New Jersey-based immigrant gang is smuggling hordes of illegal immigrants into the US across the Canadian border for $6,000 a head, a new report reveals.
The human smuggling ring took root after its founder was briefly detained and released by federal immigration authorities.
The ringleaders, immigrants from Guatemala and Colombia, sneaked across the Mexican border and set up shop in the Garden State, running lucrative schemes while avoiding the feds, according to a report by the Daily Mail.
As US Border Patrol agents grapple with a massive influx of asylum seekers from Mexico, a Jersey-based group has helped spark an under-the-radar surge in crossings along the northern border, the outlet said.
“With the huge concentration of asylum seekers and with all the people crossing the border and with the huge increase in the amount of enforcement going on at the southern border, maybe, if you have a choice, it’s easier to try to come without inspection across the Canadian border,” said Philip Kasinitz, a professor of immigration studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Migrant smugglers are taking advantage of it – charging huge fees to sneak migrants out of Quebec and into Vermont, where surveillance is less intense, the Mail said.
Simon Jacinto-Ramos, an alleged leader of a New Jersey-based migrant smuggling ring, remains at large in Canada. Tin Ramos / Facebook Elmer Bran-Galvez was stopped driving four immigrants to Vermont in June, but not charged, the Daily Mail said. El Pupa / Facebook
In June, Elmer Bran-Galvez, the alleged driver of the smuggling ring, was stopped by border agents in Franklin, Vermont transporting four illegal immigrants, telling authorities he was paid about $1,800 for each illegal passenger — but not charged , according to the outlet.
Last year, more than 10,000 immigrants were caught trying to enter the US from Canada illegally, nearly five times the 2022 figure – an indication of a massive rush across the northern border, the outlet said.
Two of the leaders of the New Jersey gang – Jhon Reina-Perez, 34, and Victor Lopez-Padilla, 35 – were eventually arrested by federal authorities, but that did not stop the flow of immigrants.
Reina-Perez, a Colombian national, crossed the southern US border in Texas in April 2022 and was released pending “immigration proceedings” but failed to check in with authorities and was busted again in October of that year – only to be released again.
Border Patrol agents arrested immigrants trying to sneak into the US across the northern border in November. Rosario Pete Vasquez / X
Lopez-Padilla, originally from Guatemala, crossed into the US in Arizona in June 2019 and was also released pending future proceedings, leaving him and his accomplices free to run the smuggling scam.
According to the Daily Mail, Lopez-Padilla may be related to jailed drug addict Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the alleged co-leader who made several references to the drug kingpin on his Facebook account.
Although now finally in custody, the third cohort, identified as Guatemalan Simon Jacinto-Ramos, is still at large and conducting operations.
Because Mexico is on Canada’s list of “visa-exempt” countries, immigrants can head there for an easier route to the US — if they can get the cash to do it.
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Four immigrants were busted trying to sneak into the US illegally at Niagara Falls. Chief Patrol Agent Thomas G. Martin / X
“Maybe some of them enter legally with tourist visas, business visas and any kind of legal visa and then illegally cross into the United States,” Kasinitz said.
Nevertheless, the US border with Mexico remains the center of the most alarming migrant crisis, with more than 2 million crossing illegally last year.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
