This week in Vermont, federal agents broke up an immigrant smuggling operation on the border of the US and Canada, revealing the increasing options used by undocumented immigrants desperate to enter the US but fearful of the stronger security on the nation’s southwestern border.
Analysts say that illegal immigration from over the northern border usually takes the form of undocumented immigrants from outside the western hemisphere, but the most recent instance saw a Honduran arrested transporting four Mexicans and 11 Guatemalans, according to authorities. Two of the latter had already been deported from the US on several previous occasions. A pregnant woman and a four-year-old girl were also taken into custody.
According to the policy director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Jessica Vaughan, smuggling has always taken place from across the northern border as it is less fortified than its southern counterpart but primarily involved immigrants from countries other than Central America or Mexico. She said that smugglers try to choose the easiest option and may now see the northern border as a better choice.
Vaughan added that the northern border may now appear more attractive due to the increased security of the southern border, especially for prior deportees or immigrants with criminal records who may be willing to pay more to be smuggled in from the north. Only 2283 undocumented immigrants were caught on the northern border last year, compared to over 408,000 on the southwestern boundary, but lawmakers still want to see more effort for security on the former.