Mexican government officials are reportedly assisting illegal immigrants seeking to travel to the southern border through a scheme involving taxi drivers.
The scheme involves agents with Mexico’s Institute of Immigration (INM) who are collaborating with taxi drivers to transport illegal aliens to the southern border and gain entry into the United States, WRIC reported.
Agents with Mexico’s Institute of Immigration (INM) are reportedly working with taxi drivers in a scheme to get unlawful migrants into the United States, according to Albert Rivera, head of the Agape Shelter in Tijuana.
Since last year, INM agents and members of Mexico’s National Guard, have been positioned just south of the border to prevent migrants from approaching the U.S.
Rivera says migrants are paying up to $500 per person to cabbies to take them to the border where INM agents are waiting.
“The migrants settle things with the cab drivers, who then transport them to the agents who provide access to the border,” said Rivera.
Rivera says he is asking Mexico’s federal government to investigate “the scheme,” since he believes the agents are getting a kickback from the people driving the taxis.
Rivera explained that “it’s only a few bad elements” within the agency.
Once the drivers pick up the migrants, they take them to the border where INM agents tell them where to cross into the U.S.
This scheme is part of several methods corrupt government officials and Mexican cartels use to smuggle people into the United States. Indeed, cartels have also set up their own taxi driving scheme, according to a report from The Independent, which noted that “Taxi or van drivers working for the cartel” help to transport illegals.
But this tactic doesn’t only apply to migrants who willingly choose to be smuggled to the U.S. In other instances, members of Mexico’s government have aided the cartels in their human trafficking efforts.
But from Sept. 9 to Oct. 11, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it had transported only 846 migrants from Tapachula to the northern border. Others traveling on their own have told of being extorted by Mexican authorities and kidnapped – again – by cartels near the northern border, forcing them to miss their appointments.
The report noted that many migrants are rushing to the southern border to seek asylum before the Trump administration takes office and shuts down the CBP One program, which allows people to set up appointments to seek asylum before making it to the border.
Incoming border czar Tom Homan has been laying out the Trump administration’s plans to curb illegal immigration and address the border crisis. He has pledged to begin mass deportations on the first day of the president-elect’s administration.
Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have pledged to begin mass deportation efforts on Day 1 of Trump’s second White House term. But with three weeks before Trump’s inauguration, federal immigration officials believe they could be facing an influx of migrants who attempt to find safety in the United States before the border is closed.
Homan, however, is warning them not to come.
Several caravans of immigrants have broken free from Mexico’s southernmost point in Tapachula near the Guatemalan border. However, those groups of migrants have not yet reached the U.S.-Mexico border.
Since President Joe Biden took office, over 8 million illegal immigrants and asylum seekers have been encountered at the southern border. Homan cautioned those seeking to enter the country illegally, saying, “They need to hear, they need to understand, ‘Do not sell everything you own to give it to the criminal cartels to be smuggled into the United States because you’re not going to stay.”
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