Tighter U.S. Border Security May Help Illegal Human Smuggling Industry
Thursday April 6, 2006
Category: Immigrants' Rights
Prohibition has a way of creating black markets by reducing supply without reducing demand--which, naturally, drives up prices and makes the industry more lucrative. Banning abortion has historically led to a flourishing back alley abortion trade, banning alcoholic beverages created the Mafia as we know it today, and it could be argued that traditional U.S. drug policy has done wonders to increase the profitability of the illegal drug trade. So it stands to reason that increased border security along the U.S.-Mexican border would be great news for the human smuggling industry, and it appears that many in the human smuggling industry agree:
Prohibition has a way of creating black markets by reducing supply without reducing demand--which, naturally, drives up prices and makes the industry more lucrative. Banning abortion has historically led to a flourishing back alley abortion trade, banning alcoholic beverages created the Mafia as we know it today, and it could be argued that traditional U.S. drug policy has done wonders to increase the profitability of the illegal drug trade. So it stands to reason that increased border security along the U.S.-Mexican border would be great news for the human smuggling industry, and it appears that many in the human smuggling industry agree:
The smuggling business flourished after the U.S. Border Patrol cracked down on the busiest crossings into Texas and California in 1994.
Migrants were funneled into the remote Arizona desert, and domestic flights into Hermosillo, Sonora, the biggest Mexican city near the Arizona border, jumped from 20 a week in 1994 to nearly 500 today. The airport's baggage claim area is often nearly empty because migrants arrive with little more than a duffel bag for the rest of their journey.
Many risk death walking for 30 hours in 100-degree temperatures through remote desert terrain ... That too is a change from the days when it was considered something of a community service in Mexican villages, and older, trusted men would show relatives and neighbors the safest routes ...
"The new generation of migrant smugglers are youths who see their clients as merchandise," [Mexican border expert Victor] Clark said. "Many of them abandon the migrants in the desert or give them drugs, or tell migrants they know the way when they don't, and they end up dying along with the migrants. Others have turned to violence to steal clients from other smugglers."
Smuggling people into the United States from around the world has become a $10 billion-a-year business, rivaling drug profits, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who started tracking smuggler profits three years ago.
Comments
While you are accurate in your description of flourishing black markets as a natural consequence of prohibition, building an effective fence from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico would, I believe, reduce smuggling substantially. What you describe is the shift of illegal trafficking from the “busiest crossings” to less guarded desert areas. If the entire border were fenced, that would no longer be the case.
Actually, that is an interesting concept and it may be true, the black market will definitely take this opportunity to make money. But i just have an advice for people not to travel to the U.S. illegally because the consequences can be harsh these days. Why not get legitimate help to become a legal traveler to the U.S.? I visited www.USborderblog.com and found a company called Canadian Pardon Services and they were able to help me get admission into the U.S. even though i have a criminal record!