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  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Human Smugglers Trying New Tactics To Evade U.S. Authorities

    http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahas ... tstory.jsp

    Posted on Sun, Jun. 05, 2005

    Human smugglers trying new tactics to evade U.S. authorities

    CURT ANDERSON
    Associated Press

    MIAMI - Instead of refugees on rickety rafts and aging boats, U.S. officials are increasingly confronted with profit-seeking human smugglers using sophisticated speedboats to bring Cubans, Haitians and even Chinese to Florida.

    "You're far more likely to make it to land on a fast boat than on a raft," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "We're certainly seeing an increase in human smuggling."

    And the smugglers are often avoiding the more heavily patrolled areas such as the Florida Keys and bringing their cargos of people, usually paying between $8,000 and $10,000 a head, to more remote locales farther up the coast.

    "They look for areas that are not as populated," said Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz.

    South Florida has long been a destination for smugglers from the Caribbean and Latin America, from the rum-runners of the 1930s to the drug traffickers of the 1980s. Refugees from Cuba, Haiti and other countries are just another way smugglers can make money, authorities say.

    In the past few months, authorities in Collier and Lee counties on Florida's southwest coast have seized seven boats involved in smuggling operations, some of them carrying drums of fuel and other supplies required for the longer trip from Cuba. On the east coast, at least four separate groups of migrants have landed in the past three months north of Palm Beach, including some people from China.

    In one typical case, 15 Cuban migrants including four children used a homemade "chug-chug" vessel to reach an island in the Bahamas, where they were met by prearrangement by smugglers in a 29-foot boat with twin outboard engines that was able to reach speeds of 35 knots. Although that group was caught in October 2004, many others likely get through.

    Robert Woods, assistant special agent in charge of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami, said the "go-fast" boats are only part of the organized criminal enterprises that smuggle people into South Florida. He said undercover ICE investigations have resulted in 75 convictions of such organizations in the past two years.

    "There are a lot of different schemes and you need a lot of people in a network to do that," Woods said. "The boat driver is the key to other components of the organization. We go after the whole organization."

    Woods said that since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, federal authorities have been concerned that al-Qaida might attempt to use these established smuggling rings to insert operatives in the United States. To date, he said, there has been no evidence of a terrorist connection.

    Yet people keep coming from all over the world. Chinese can fly from Beijing to Moscow to Havana and hop on a go-fast boat to the United States, Woods said. Several dozen Ukrainians have been detained in recent months after attempting to sail from the Dominican Republican to South Florida.

    The Coast Guard arrests between six and eight groups of smugglers and migrants each month, many of them repeat offenders. Smugglers face up to 3 years minimum in prison if they are caught with more than 10 migrants, according to federal prosecutors.

    As of Wednesday, the Coast Guard had intercepted 5,700 migrants so far this year attempting to reach the United States by sea. Of those, about 1,300 were Cubans, 1,300 were Haitians and the rest included Dominicans, Mexicans, Ecuadoreans and Chinese.

    Migrants intercepted at sea are generally repatriated to their home countries. Except for Cubans, those who reach U.S. shores are either released on bond or kept in detention pending a decision on whether they can stay. Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay under laws enacted to undermine the communist government of President Fidel Castro.

    Beyond the legal implications are safety concerns. While there are no firm numbers available, Coast Guard officials say many migrants perish at sea aboard smugglers' boats that are usually not outfitted for safety.

    "Rough seas claim many lives. Sometimes it's impossible to know," Diaz said.

    For example, in the October 2004 case, the smugglers' boat was in poor condition, with cracks in the hull and other damage, according to an ICE affidavit filed in federal court. There were only 10 life jackets, and those were "in an unusable condition, tied together in knots or damaged."

    There was food and drink on board, but it had been tossed into a forward compartment and were "covered in oil and water," according to the ICE documents.

    To combat the problem, federal authorities are forming task forces with state and local police to look for telltale smuggler clues, such as boats carrying far too much fuel for what appears to be a simple fishing trip.

    Yet with thousands of Cubans, Haitians and others in the United States wishing to bring family and friends to this country, those with the money will likely continue to risk hiring smugglers only too eager to take the money and take to the sea.

    "As the Coast Guard steps up their efforts and interdicts vessels trying to reach U.S. shores, it's not surprising we would see an increase in the human smuggler. People are very vulnerable to exploitation," Little said.

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  2. #2

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    I adamently support the Real I.D.. I also don't have any doubt in my mind at all that people would would like to exploit the circumstances will try and circumvent, or hinder the Real I.D. And if that does happen, essentially, the human smugglers described up above will win.

    This story is an excellent story to copy and mail to your representitive. The way we stop this is 1. an effective real I.D. 2. fines for employers who have hired illegal immigrants.

    Ahhh BUT... we don't want to penalize Spanish Speaking Latino's who are American Citizens and so... we wait and if the Social Security Card used is good.. the skates. If the employer has a rejection of the Social Security Card, that employer notifies the Immigration Authorities and the employers are off the hook while the Immigration folks check the numbers.

    I want to point something out here. This process would have been very, very easy to put in place a long, long time ago by Immigration or by the President. Hain't there is it....

    Tancredo for President!

    Copy the post, copy my comments, and send them to your Representitive. Ask them to honor their oath of office, obey the law, and enforce the immigration law.

  3. #3

    Join Date
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    You can also send this to the two House of Represenititive leaders. You can send this to the Senate Leaders. And that would be a better thought I think. And if you do, you want to point out that if Congress had funded the authorized Border Patrol increase back in the 1990's, this would never have happened. Sooo....

    Congress should fund the Border Patrol increase,

    fund the detention centers that enable detentions to take place, and

    pay the local governments for use of their jails when they detain illegal aliens.

    I would point out that arrests of illegal aliens for lack of Drivers Licenses, drunken driving and much, much more were happening all the time. The Federal Government under the Republican Party did NOT fund any of the above and that, coupled with the criminal employers/cheap labor concept, created a great deal of the problem we see today.

    Good article and thank you!

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