Human Smugglers’ Disregard for Human Life

In most instances, alien smuggling organizations have shown complete disregard for the lives under their control. In a trafficking case in McAllen, Texas, two smuggled women from Central America were found on the side of a road beaten and without clothing. Their captors intimidated the victims by shooting weapons into the walls and ceiling as they were raped. U.S. law enforcement officials say it is a virtual certainty that women will be sexually assaulted or raped on their journey across the Southwest border into America.

In May 2006, Webb County, Texas sheriff’s deputies found illegal immigrants locked inside a refrigerated trailer. An anonymous call led the deputies to the trailer in a warehouse district of Laredo, Texas. When the deputies arrived on the scene, there was no driver in sight and no way for the individuals locked inside to escape. The forty-three men, eleven women and two children had been in the truck for approximately six hours 60 and many were near death by the time they were rescued.

In another case, two individuals were convicted on February 2, 2006, in Tucson, Arizona for causing death and serious bodily injury while smuggling illegal aliens and attempting to evade arrest. The smugglers were transporting illegal aliens in a stolen truck on an Arizona Interstate and, during a high speed pursuit, caused an accident that involved ten vehicles. The accident resulted in the deaths of five people, including an elderly couple hit head on, and injured thirty-eight individuals.

The illegal aliens smuggled into the United States on rail trains coming from Mexico into Brownsville, McAllen, and Laredo, Texas are often robbed, beaten, and sexually assaulted by gangs and corrupt law enforcement officials along the way. Sadly, these examples are not rare, but are instead daily occurrences in the multi-billion dollar human smuggling business.