Border Patrol officials told lawmakers that smugglers charge illegal immigrants from China up to $60,000 to unlawfully enter the United States, according to a report released on Tuesday from Republicans on the House Committee on Homeland Security.
Border Patrol chiefs told the committee earlier this year that transnational criminal organizations effectively controlled the U.S. southern border, charging thousands of dollars to people looking to sneak into America. The cost of entry into the U.S. increased depending on how far away you were coming from and where you were entering, they said.
The average cost was estimated to be around $8,600, but could be around $60,000 if you were coming from China. A record number of Chinese nationals have been encountered by Border Patrol in the last year.
Human smuggling and trafficking have proven to be an incredibly lucrative business for the cartels as a record number of illegal migrants have surged to the border under President Joe Biden.
Chief of U.S. Border Patrol Jasen Owens estimated during his time as the Del Rio sector chief that transnational criminal organizations were making more than $30 million weekly on human trafficking and smuggling operations in that part of Texas.
Aaron Heitke, the Chief Patrol Agent for the San Diego sector, said that “it costs more to go through an area that has a better chance of getting away.”
Many women are raped during the process as well, with Heitke saying that some of the women see it as part of the payment to get through.
The cartels exert heavy control over the southern border area, reportedly beating migrants who attempt to illegally enter the United States without paying them. Laredo Chief Patrol Agent Joel Martinez said that his team found two bodies washed up on shore, one of whom was shot between the eyes and the other whose head was half shot off. He said they suspect these were people who tried to cross without the cartel’s permission.
During their interviews with the committee, the Border Patrol agents said that one way to deter illegal immigration would be to detain everyone instead of releasing thousands into the country with court dates set years in the future.
“I think optimally, other than the rare occasion where you have someone with a crazy medical condition, everyone should be detained. And that, to me, is the most obvious way to not encourage illegal immigration, is everyone’s held until they have a hearing,” said Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin.
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El Centro Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino said that border walls helped as well. “In many of those areas now, where there is border wall, we see very little vehicular incursions across the desert between ports of entry, and a decrease in pedestrian crossings at the border, especially where the 33-foot wall exists,” he said.
Biden has denied that there is a crisis at the border even as Border Patrol reportedly recorded more than 300,000 illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border in December, a new record.