Migrant Smuggling Data and Research

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THE UNITED STATES
Sheldon X. Zhang
Introduction
This chapter concerns human smuggling activities in the United States,
a signatory country since 2000 to the United Nations Convention against
Transnational Organized Crime (or the Palermo Convention). 113 Organized human
smuggling activities are nothing new to the United States, a country that has
seen various ethnic groups attempting to cross the borders through unofficial
channels. In this chapter, recent trends of irregular migration will be presented
and gaps in research and empirical data will be discussed.
For the much of the United States–Mexico history, border security has
been closely pegged to the politics between the two countries. It is the longest, as
well as the most dramatic meeting point between a rich and a poor country, and
between law enforcement and law evasion (Andreas, 2009). The unprecedented
build-up in border control since 1993 was especially jarring in an era of growing
global commerce when politicians and corporations join hands to break down
nation State barriers for better flows of goods and services, as epitomized in the
North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (ibid.).
Migrant smuggling has long been an enabling factor in the long history of
irregular immigration in North America. Two types of unauthorized migrants tend
to make regular use of smuggling services. The first group of migrants consists
mostly of indigenous farmers from interior Mexico, mainly central-western
States, such as Michoacan, Guanajuato and Jalisco, and of migrants from other
Latin American countries further south. These indigenous migrants often trek
their way towards the United States–Mexico border by freight trains and trucks
or other means. Upon arrival at the border regions, they will find a smuggler to
arrange for the trip north. The second group consists of illegal migrants from
other parts of the world, such as Asia and Eastern Europe, collectively called
113
The formal rectification of the Palermo Protocols by the University States was on 3 November 2005. The list
of all countries and their signatory status to the Convention can be found at https://treaties.un.org/PAGES/
ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIII-12&chapter=18&clang=_en
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research:
A global review of the emerging evidence base
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