U.S. officials are trying to dissuade human traffickers from trading at the border, taking advantage of immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally. VOA correspondent Celia Mendoza reports that illegal entry across the US border is a big business in Central and South America. There are many people who are being forced to give up their money and lives in order to escape the violence and poverty in their own country, to cross the border into the United States.

Ronaldo Galicia, a Guatemalan immigrant, said: “I had to save my property when I came here and I had to pay twenty thousand dollars.” Ronaldo, a 39-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, described his experience while staying at Casa Alitas, a Tusanan refugee camp in the state of Arizona. Immigrant Ronaldo Galicia said: “I do not believe in the people who brought us up. They put me in a trunk where I could not breathe, but I thanked God that I was alive, because everyone who was sent in the trunk died. ”

The U.S. Border Patrol says such illegal activity is part of a multibillion-dollar human trafficking business. Border Patrol spokesman and agent Mario Escalant said: Clearly, over the years, what we’ve seen is that they take advantage of these people, leave them where they are, and even steal from them. “Unfortunately, they rape young girls and there are many more horrific incidents.”

Ronald Galicia, a Guatemalan immigrant, said: “They demand a lot of money and if they do not get the money according to the time and date, they will kill you. And they will kill you softly; First they will cut off your hand, cut off your tongue, then they will cut off your ear, that is their law. ”

The district in which Henry Queller, a member of the U.S. Democratic Congress, is in charge, stretches from San Antonio to the border town of McLean in South Texas. “We know very well that these criminal gangs make money by smuggling drugs, they make money by smuggling people,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection says it has arrested more than 5,000 people trying to cross the U.S. border illegally by fiscal year 2021, with previous criminal records or attempts to apprehend criminals. Authorities say they are focusing more on criminals who are taking advantage of immigrants financially and physically.

Southern Border Coordinator Roberta Jacobson said: “We are working with intelligence and intelligence sources to ensure that we are really focusing on criminals who exploit these migrants in the name of crossing the border for criminal and economic reasons. Is doing. ”

President Joe Biden says his administration has sent a comprehensive immigration strategy to Congress, but in the current context, efforts are being made to discourage people from crossing the border illegally into the United States.