An elevator mechanic at the Los Angeles Airport was recently arrested for assisting illegal immigrants bypass Custom checkpoints by using his airport security clearance.  From the LA Times: Officials said the improvements were made following the arrest of Roberto Amaya Canchola, 53, on Aug. 23 at LAX, where he has worked as an elevator mechanic for more [...]

According to author Moises Naim, the FBI estimates that “the Mexican people trade earns the networks $6 to $9 billion each year. Source: Moises Naim, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are hijacking the global economy, (New York: Doubleday, 2005), pg. 88.

According to author Moises Naim, ” human smuggling out of China alone has been estimated between $1 and $3 billion per year”. Source: Moises Naim, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats are hijacking the global economy, (New York: Doubleday, 2005), pg. 88.

Reuters has an update on human smugglers entering the United States by sea due to the increase security   on the border. From Reuters: Mexican smugglers are cramming illegal immigrants and drugs into boats and ferrying them to California by sea to try to beat the tightened security on the U.S. land border, authorities say. U.S. Coast Guard [...]

Illegal immigrant patients in US hospitals are being deported by hospitals due to their lack of medical insurance. From the New York Times: Many American hospitals are taking it upon themselves to repatriate seriously injured or ill immigrants because they cannot find nursing homes willing to accept them without insurance. Medicaid does not cover long-term care for [...]

A new study has found that there is an 11 percent drop in the number of illegal immigrants in the United States due to the enforcement mesaures taken by the Bush administration. From the LA Times: The report by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank, says that the number of illegal immigrants fell about [...]

The Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided for employing illegal immigrants is also being investigated for violating child labor laws in the United States. From the New York Times: At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn [...]

As previously reported, the US Coast Guard is in a 6 week trial run of using a blimp to monitor the coast of Florida.  The blimp, which only burns 10 gallons of fuel an hour, is an attempt by authorities to find cheaper ways of monitoring the coast for drug and human smugglers. From AFP (via Google [...]

From an editorial from the New York Times on Saturday, July 19th: Of the some 1.5 million children who will run away from home this year, tens of thousands will spend time working for sexual predators and selling their bodies on the streets. According to one federal estimate, the average age of a child first used [...]

Smuggling activity is reported to be down this summer on the US-Canada border, according to officials. From the AP (via Boston Globe): Summer is the busy time for both the Border Patrol and smugglers of both and contraband who choose to enter the U.S. illegally via Lake Champlain and the surrounding areas. But the Border Patrol says [...]