Monday
Jun282004
Immigrant Smugglers Become More Ruthless
Monday, June 28, 2004 at 11:44PM
Tactics Changing in Face of Federal Crackdown
From Southern California to Texas, as a federal crackdown against illicit crossings intensifies along the nation's southwestern border, smugglers are taking ruthless new steps to exploit the multitude of poor immigrants from Mexico and Central America trying to reach the United States at any cost. In the past few months around Los Angeles, authorities have discovered more than 650 illegal immigrants being held captive by smuggling rings -- inside trucks and motel rooms, in squalid bungalows without electricity, even at a brothel where they were being forced to perform sex acts for their freedom. [more]
From Southern California to Texas, as a federal crackdown against illicit crossings intensifies along the nation's southwestern border, smugglers are taking ruthless new steps to exploit the multitude of poor immigrants from Mexico and Central America trying to reach the United States at any cost. In the past few months around Los Angeles, authorities have discovered more than 650 illegal immigrants being held captive by smuggling rings -- inside trucks and motel rooms, in squalid bungalows without electricity, even at a brothel where they were being forced to perform sex acts for their freedom. [more]