HomeNewsBriefUS-Canada Border Arrest Shows Varied Human Smuggling Routes
BRIEF

US-Canada Border Arrest Shows Varied Human Smuggling Routes

CANADA / 16 OCT 2017 BY PARKER ASMANN EN

US authorities have arrested a Honduran national for allegedly smuggling several migrants from Central America and Mexico into the United States from Canada, highlighting a rarely seen variation in human smuggling routes amid increased enforcement along the US-Mexico border.

On October 11, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents announced the arrest of 25-year-old Honduran national Héctor Ramón Pérez-Alvarado for allegedly smuggling 15 migrants -- 11 Guatemalans and four Mexicans -- from Canada into the United States through Derby, Vermont along the northeast US-Canada border, according to an agency press release.

According to an affidavit from US Border Patrol Agent Matthew Palma, on October 7, authorities identified a van making multiple trips to a motel in Derby from the border crossing located on the northeast US-Canada border between the town of Beebe Plain, Québec, Canada and Beebe Plain, Vermont.

While conducting surveillance on the vehicle on October 8, US Border Patrol agents observed five individuals running south from the Canadian side of the border before presumably entering Pérez-Alvarado's vehicle on the US side, according to the affidavit.

After following the vehicle back to the motel, agents stopped the van, which was driven by Pérez-Alvarado. They discovered six other passengers inside, all of whom did not have legal status in the United States, according to the affidavit.

The individuals in the car admitted that they had just illegally crossed the border from Canada into the United States, according to the affidavit. After believing that there might be additional individuals located in the motel room, Pérez-Alvarado provided the agents with his motel room key, where they subsequently found nine more people.

Pérez-Alvarado was charged with human smuggling, according to the criminal complaint. Two other individuals were charged with re-entering the United States after having previously been removed, according to the press release.

InSight Crime Analysis

For human smugglers and those they smuggle, illegally entering the United States from Mexico is tougher than ever before, and Border Patrol agents are allegedly capturing or preventing the vast majority of those trying to do so, according to a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report.

Indeed, the report found that 55 to 85 percent of those trying to cross the US-Mexico border are apprehended or interdicted, up from just 35 to 70 percent a decade ago. These increased efforts, and their reported success, may in part be contributing to a variation in the routes being utilized by smugglers.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Human Smuggling

However, it is unclear how the migrants entered Canada in the first place before connecting with the smuggler who helped them cross into the United States. Only two of the migrants had entered the United States before, which suggests that the remaining migrants would have needed to purchase false documents and a plane ticket to enter Canada.

The most recent case observed along the US-Canada border suggests that smugglers may be shifting away from traditional smuggling routes along the US-Mexico border to routes along the US-Canada border. However, experts say that the Canadian border is a source of far less concern for US authorities than the border with Mexico.

White House chief of staff John Kelly told reporters last week, "[We] don’t have nearly the issues on the northern border with Canada. Great partnerships there."

And Randy Capps, director of research for US Programs at the Migration Policy Institute, said that the recent case in Vermont is not likely to portend a major shift in migration dynamics.

"From what we do know, it seems highly unlikely that this will be a new trend given the economic and logistical obstacles," Capps told InSight Crime.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 17 NOV 2022

InSight Crime sat down with Suriname's President Chan Santokhi to discuss the multiple criminal challenges ahead for the country.

HUMAN RIGHTS / 29 JUN 2022

As many as 50 migrants have been found dead inside a truck 150 miles north of the US-Mexico border.

ELITES AND CRIME / 8 AUG 2023

Human trafficking has increased dramatically in Venezuela. The involvement of the country's security forces is key to this, experts say.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…