“Operation Sentinel”: US launches an operation against immigrant traffickers

The United States government declared war on coyotes with the “Sentinel Operation”, led by DHS with the cooperation of the State Department and the FBI

Photo: John Moore / Getty Images

For: EFE 27 of April 2021

WASHINGTON – The administration of President Joe Biden announced this Tuesday the launch of a operation against the illegal trafficking of immigrants on the border with Mexico, as part of its strategy to stop irregular migration .

This was revealed by the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas , who hardly gave details of the so-called “Operation Sentinel” and it limited itself to saying that it aims to “dismantle transnational criminal organizations that smuggle migrants into the United States.”

Mayorkas explained that the traffickers and their accomplices will have to face “a series of specific actions and sanctions”, such as the revocation of their travel documents and the freezing of the bank accounts they have in the US

Various government agencies are involved, such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Service Citizenship and Immigration Law (USCIS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Mayorkas anticipated that the measures they will take in the coming months “will improve the border in the United States and help save the lives of vulnerable migrants.”

For his part, the Acting Director from CBP, Troy Miller , detailed that his agency has “rescued” so far this fiscal year 4, 766 immigrants in the fron tera with Mexico, compared to 5, undocumented persons rescued in the fiscal year .

Miller reported that Human trafficking organizations are responsible for sexual assaults, human trafficking and abandonment of young children.

And stated that especially minors and women are left to their own devices by these organizations in remote and dangerous areas without food or water when they cannot keep up with the group.

In this context, he assured that 250 migrants died in the fiscal year 2020 to try to cross the border and that at were discovered 300 unidentified human remains that it is feared that they could be immigrants.

The Biden Administration is working on a strategy, in cooperation with the governments of Central America and Mexico, to discourage irregular migration to the US, after that in March 80, 300 undocumented persons were intercepted by border agents, of which 10, 800 were minors alone.