Thread: Phoenix Seen As Crime's Staging Area

Phoenix Seen As Crime's Staging Area

By UPI Wire

Aug 14, 2006

PHOENIX, Aug. 14, 2006 (UPI) -- Phoenix reportedly has become an enormous staging area in the trafficking of illegal aliens into the United States.

The Arizona Republic reports that immigrants are held hostage in the city's apartments, motel rooms or rental homes until traffickers get their fees.

State investigators told the newspaper the black market business, which rakes in $2 billion a year, drives the illegal immigration problem, spreading corruption and violence through the region.

On a typical day, thousands of undocumented people are packed into so-called drop houses while the traffickers collect the fees and their helpers fend off other smugglers who try to steal the migrants for ransom.

Investigators estimate the traffickers at more than 1,000.

"I would say that 90 percent of the transactions dealing with the sale of human cargo, those smuggled across the (Arizona) border, occur right here," a Phoenix-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent told a court hearing last year.

The Republic report says the city is ideal for drop-houses because it's close to the Mexican line yet far enough so there is virtually no Border Patrol enforcement.

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/break ... 3987.shtml

I've been in Arizona, enforcing our immigration laws, for over 8 years and Phoenix has been the largest illegal alien smuggling hub since the day I started.

Check out this site.

http://privatepoliceforce.com/

Thanks for the link. I just sent them an e-mail, to see if they have actually done any successful enforcement.