2) "On July 13, 1999, Serrano-Valdez was again arrested by USBP Agents in San Clemente, California for Alien Smuggling. Serrano was discovered in the act of transporting three (3) undocumented aliens concealed in the car trunk of the vehicle she was driving at the time of arrest. Prosecution was declined and Serrano was again formally removed from the U.S. to Mexico."

3) "On January 25, 2000, a 1988 Chevrolet Pick-up truck owned by Serrano . . . was stopped by USBP Agents in Campo, California for alien smuggling violations. The driver and all of the occupants of the vehicle fled from the vehicle on foot. Five (5) persons determined to be undocumented aliens from Mexico were subsequently located and arrested in the vicinity of the vehicle. The driver and an unknown number of suspected aliens fled the scene and were not located."

In 1999, the government did not consider it a serious crime to pack three illegal aliens into the trunk of a car in Southern California in July. Had the government shown zero tolerance for such acts, perhaps 19 illegal aliens would not have died after being packed into a tractor-trailer in southern Texas in May 2003.

Did things change after Sept. 11? A little.

Last year, then-Assistant Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Joseph R. Greene described Operation Southern Focus, begun in January 2002. "Information available to the INS indicates terrorist organizations often use human smuggling operations to move around the globe," he told a House subcommittee. To counter this, he said, the administration had put in place "a multi-jurisdictional enforcement initiative aimed at targeting alien smuggling organizations specializing in the movement of U.S.-bound aliens from countries that are of interest to the national security of the United States."

Rather than stop illegal border crossings generally, the government is trying to pick out the potential Middle Eastern terrorists sneaking in among the Latin American jobseekers.

This won't work because elements of the same criminal subculture that smuggle jobseekers also smuggle "U.S.-bound aliens from countries that are of interest to the national security of the United States."

Ask Patricia Serrano.

 

***

Correction: Last week, I incorrectly transcribed two quotes from Korkin's affidavit. Korkin said an investigation "positively identified at least 80 Lebanese nationals that have been, or were intercepted in the process of being, smuggled into the U.S. . . ." My transcription dropped "intercepted." Korkin said the "organization employs several individuals and co-conspirators in various countries to include Lebanon." My transcription said "including Lebanon."