![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/coyote_0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
“Trafficking is a multibillion-dollar industrym,” according to just-retired Tucson Border Patrol Chief Roy Villareal, who had been with the agency for 30 years. “A lot of these vulnerable populations use their life savings. Some are essentially indentured servants and they’re working off this debt for a long period of time. In other cases, some of these migrants are asked to transport narcotics or some form of crime to work off a different part of their debt.”<\/p>\n
The human smuggling windfall comes as U.S. taxpayer costs for the border crisis continue to spike, topping $5 million a day, based on 2019 figures provided by Health and Human Services that put daily “influx” shelter costs at $800 per migrant<\/strong>. Additionally, last week the Biden administration awarded a $86 million contract for hotel rooms to hold 1,200 migrant families<\/strong> as the crisis exceeds ICE holding capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n
Additional costs will include overtime and hotel costs for the hundreds of agents reassigned to Texas from other areas. For context, in 2019 Congress appropriated an extra $4.6 billion to handle a similar migrant surge. In 2014, Congress gave President Obama an extra $2.7 billion to deal with his border crisis. –Fox News<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to the report, human traffickers are paid a portion up front<\/strong>, and typically paid the rest over time by the worker, their family, or an employer. The initial funds cover food, shelter, transportation, and a coyote (guide) to lead them over the border and into the United States.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, 13 people were killed<\/a> in California <\/strong>when the SUV they were in collided with a semi-truck. The deceased were believed to have been illegally smuggled across the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pray for the accident victims and their families during this difficult time,\u201d said El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino in a news conference following the accident. Agents, he said, believe the deceased individuals were part of a larger group of about 44 migrants who were smuggled through a hole in the fence<\/a> near Calexico, a California city that lies along the border and is next to the Mexican city of Mexicali.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Bovino added that an \u201cinitial investigation into the origins of the vehicles indicate a potential nexus to the aforementioned breach in the border wall<\/strong>,\u201d while adding that \u201chuman smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n