Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Market
By Eric Schlosser
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003
     According to Schlosser, the underground economy comprises 10 percent or more of the United States' overall economy. In this book, he examines the role that narcotics, pornography and migrant workers play in this underground economy.
     In the chapter reprinted here -- In the Strawberry Fields -- Schlosser focuses on the strawberry industry in California, which relies heavily on migrant labor and which generates more money for American farmers than any other fresh fruit grown in the United States, except apples. Yet strawberry pickers are the poorest of agricultural workers, among the most exploited, and the ones most likely to be illegal immigrants.

Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives
Edited by David Kyle and Rey Koslowski
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001
     This book examines a wide variety of facets to the growing problem of human smuggling. Some 4 million people are smuggled across borders each year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
     
Three chapters dealing with Chinese human smuggling are reprinted here:

Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States
By Ko-lin Chin, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1999
     Summary: Chin interviewed 300 smuggled Chinese in New York City to learn why and how they left China and what their lives were like once in the United States. He graphically describes the hardships they face but concludes that "the outflow of Chinese will stop only after the economic, political, and legal systems of China approach those of the industrialized and democratic countries."

Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor
By Peter Kwong, The New Press, New York, 1997
     Summary: Kwong looks at the plight of illegal immigrants in the United States from a labor standpoint. "Smuggling unfree labor for profit is barbaric and should be outlawed, just as was the slave trade, which was banned in the nineteenth century by European states," he writes. He illustrates how illegal immigrants, seeking better economic opportunities in the United States, too often find themselves exploited, in debt, and trapped in low-wage jobs.

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The Role of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market
A report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
November 2005
     Summary: In 2004, according to this report, more than 21 million workers -- one in seven workers in the United States -- were foreign born, and half had arrived since 1990. Almost 40 percent of foreign-born workers were from Mexico and Central America, and 25 percent were from Asia.
     Foreign-born workers include those who are naturalized U.S. citizens, those who are not citizens but are authorized immigrants, and those who are unauthorized immigrants. About 40 percent of foreign-born workers are U.S. citizens, and possibly half -- 6 or 7 million -- are unauthorized. But as this study points out: "(T)he number of unauthorized immigrants must be estimated by indirect methods that introduce the possibility of significant errors."
     According to this report, the impact of immigrant workers who have little education on the wages of native-born high school dropouts is difficult to quantify. "Recent estimates of the effects of two decades of growth in the foreign-born workforce on the average earnings of native high school dropouts have ranged from negligible to an earnings reduciton of almost 10 percent," the report says.
     The Role of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Market was requested by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee and is the third of several reports by the Congressional Budget Office that present facts and research on immigration to help inform the agency's projections of the federal budget and the economy.

Money Laundering & Terrorist Financing Typologies 2004-2005
Financial Action Task Force
Chapter Three: Proceeds from Trafficking in Human Beings and
Illegal Migration/Human Smuggling
June 10, 2005
     Summary: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established by the G-7 Summit in Paris in July 1989 to promote anti-money laundering initiatives around the world and to build a global anti-money laundering network. FATF members include 29 governments and two regional organizations representing major financial centers in America, Europe and Asia.
     Each year the FATF produces a report on its efforts. This year, for the first time, it has included an examination of money laundering as it is associated with human trafficking and illegal migration.
     Human trafficking and human smuggling (See Smuggling? Trafficking? What's the Difference?), according to the FATF's 2005 report, represent "a core business of international criminal organisations" which generates an estimated U.S. $10 billion per year.
     Although estimating the overall profitability of human trafficking and illegal immigration globally is difficult, some information has been gathered by law enforcement intelligence. According to FATF findings, the price to smuggle an illegal immigrant to the United States -- by far the most expensive country for an illegal to reach -- can run between U.S. $1,000 to U.S. $100,000 depending on the route and the originating location of the immigrant.
     Depending on the ethnic origin of the migrants, payments are made in advance of the trip, in installments, or upon arrival at the final destination.
     Prices charged depend on the nationality and wealth of the prospective migrant, the risks involved in the journey, the "professionalism" of the smuggler, the degree of comfort to be provided to the migrant during the journey, and the attractiveness of the country of destination.
     Costs to the smugglers may account for nearly 50 percent of the prices paid. These costs include bribes paid to facilitate the smuggling operation, payments for travel and payments for accommodations along the route.
     The FATF found that although some vehicles for moving money -- especially money remittance services by wire -- are more frequently used by smugglers than others, no new money laundering techniques were identified. But the report notes: "While the use of professional launderers is reported in the United States, Italy and Russia, in many cases it was observed that criminals launder their own proceeds." This, the report says, has implications for those countries that do not recognize "own proceeds" laundering as an category among money laundering offences.
     The FATF found regional patterns to money laundering. "Reported cases, mainly in Europe, appear to show profits at the final stage of the laundering process being invested in banking and insurance products and in real estate or business," the report says. "In other areas (e.g. Asia), underground banking systems (Hawala and Hundi) are being used to retain criminal proceeds."

Characteristics of Chinese Human Smugglers
By Sheldon Zhang and Ko-lin Chin
National Institute of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
Research in Brief
August 2004
     Summary:According to the findings of this study, most Chinese human smugglers are "ordinary citizens" who form temporary business alliances to bring Chinese illegally into the United States.
     The authors base their finding on 129 interviews conducted in New York City, Los Angeles and Fuzhou with Chinese who admitted to human smuggling. Zhang and Chin were unable to find a connection between their subjects' illegal endeavors and traditional organized crime organizations.
     The primary motive for Chinese human smugglers -- also known as "snakeheads" -- is money. While smuggling fees can vary from $500 to $200,000 per client, total smuggling fees per illegal immigrant most commonly run from $50,000 to $60,000. The profits made by individual snakeheads range from $500 to $40,000, depending on the role and responsiblity of the snakehead in the smuggling operation, with the median being $10,000, according to this study.
     Sheldon Zhang, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at San Diego State University. Ko-lin Chin, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University.
     This Research in Brief is based on a longer report released in October 2002 entitled "The Characteristics of Chinese Human Smugglers: A Cross National Study."

United Kingdom Threat Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2003
Section 4: Organised Immigration Crime
Released in August 2003
     Summary: The 2003 threat assessment report released by the Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) contains an interesting overview of the problem of illegal immigration both for Britain and the European Union.

     Among the highlights:

     -- In 1975 there were an estimated 75 million migrants. By 1990 this had risen to 120 million, and by 2000 to 150 million.

     -- Western governments' increased concern with immigration and terrorism and the resultant increased security have increased the opportunities for serious and organised criminals to smuggle people.

     -- Noting the differences in the United Nations' definitions for people smuggling versus trafficking, this report says: "The vast majority of illegal migrants appear to be willing participants rather than victims of human trafficking, and all the indications are that human trafficking takes place on a much smaller scale than people smuggling."

     -- The report finds that there are five broad patterns of movement used by illegal immigrants to reach the European Union, but cautions that "focusing on routes may be less productive for law enforcement than concentrating on specific nexus points, where routes converge and where illegal migrants congregate before being moved on. The overall picture remains patchy, but Belgrade, Budapest, Istanbul, Kiev, Moscow, Prague, and Sarajevo stand out as nexus points for migrants looking to enter the EU."

     -- The enlargement of the European Union's free movement zone in 2004 will bring its borders closer to many would-be migrants.

Asian Criminal Enterprises
By Marcus Frank
Special Investigations Unit, Intelligence/Organized Crime
Westminster Police Department, California
Paper adapted from a presentation given at
The 25th International Asian Organized Crime Conference held in
Boston, Massachusetts
May 26, 2003
     Summary: In this paper, Frank discusses the evolving phenomenon of the Asian Criminal Enterprise (ACE).
       Occupying a definitional area between street gangs and organized crime syndicates, ACEs notably do not adopt names for their organizations. The lack of a structured hierarchy and the fluidity of membership make ACEs a challenge for law enforcement.
       ACE members are recruited for their specific skills (often highly technical), and they cooperate out of loyalty to a criminal economic enterprise rather than allegiance to a "name."
       Most ACEs begin by concentrating on a single area of criminal endeavor (e.g., people smuggling) and build the enterprise in the same manner as legitimate, legal businesses.

Hawala and Other Informal Value Transfer Systems: How to Regulate Them?
By Nikos Passas, L.L.B., Ph.D., visiting scholar at the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts
Adapted from a paper published in Risk Management, 2003
     Summary: Billions of dollars are generated by criminal enterprises, including that of human smuggling. How do criminals move this money around, undetected by law enforcement?
     Some use "informal value transfer systems" (IVTS). In the United States, this method is sometimes called "underground banking" or "alternative remittance systems." In Arabic, it is known as hawala or simply "transfer." The Chinese call it fei ch'ien or "flying money."
     IVTS moves billions, if not trillions, of dollars around the world. Some of it is honest money; some of it is not.
     In this paper based on an 18-month research project, Professor Nikos Passas explains this age-old method for moving money and offers some suggestions for controlling its use by criminals. He points out that millions of people use IVTS for legitimate needs in parts of the world where banking services are unavailable or inefficient. Trust, he emphasizes, is the defining element of IVTS. IVTS, he says, are reliable, fast, cheap and convenient. Passas notes that the terrorists connected with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States used formal financial institutions to receive funds.
      The challenge for law enforcement is to understand IVTS and develop cooperative arrangements with law enforcement around the world to better detect the criminal abuse of IVTS.

Asian Criminal Enterprises and Prostitution
By Marcus Frank
Special Investigations Unit, Intelligence/Organized Crime
Westminster Police Department, California
An edited version of a paper delivered to the
24th International Asian Organized Crime Conference held in
Chicago, Illinois
March 25-39, 2002
     Summary: Not all Asian women smuggled into the United States for prostitution are deceived by their smugglers. Some were prostitutes in their native countries and come to the United States hoping to earn more money than they could back home, according to this study done by Asian gang expert Marcus Frank.
     For example, some older, less attractive prostitutes working in Thailand -- where there is an established and, generally speaking, a socially accepted sex industry -- will voluntarily be smuggled into the United States in the hope of finding higher-paying clientele.
     Some Asian syndicates are recruiting Hispanic prostitutes to promote their brothels as being "exotic" and "unique." These women voluntarily work in the United States on six-month contracts, after which they receive their "cut" in a lump sum and are taken back to their homes in Mexico.
     In this paper, Frank reviews the history of Asian prostitution in the United States and the current situation of those both voluntarily and involuntarily in the business. He also details the recruiting, smuggling and operating methods of the Asian criminal enterprises that control much of the sex trade.

Chinese Organized Crime in Western and Eastern Europe
By Professor Emil W. Plywaczewski, Ph.D.
Paper delivered at the 3rd Annual Symposium "Crime and Its Control in Greater China"
June 21-22, 2002
University of Hong Kong, PRC
     Summary: Chinese organized crime has become well established in every major Chinese community across the world, Plywaczewski says. Members include community leaders as well as ordinary workers.
     "It is difficult to penetrate this subculture," Plywaczewski writes, "because members have no prior criminal records.... They can conceal their criminal activities through their involvement in lawful business activities."
       Plywaczewski provides detailed information on Chinese people-smuggling operations in Austria, Hungary, Poland and other European countries.
       He notes that Chinese criminal groups operate in isolated "cells," each with a specific duty and unaware of other cells in the criminal operation except the one from which it accepts assignments.
       In the case of people smuggling, some organizations will, for a higher fee, provide their "customers" with "a guarantee of effectiveness." That is, the smugglers guarantee that they will get their client to a target country no matter how many times they might be stopped by law enforcement.

Report to the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Impacts Caused by Undocumented Aliens Crossing Federal Lands in Southeast Arizona
Prepared by the Immigration and Naturalization Service through the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
April 2002
     Summary: Illegal immigrants have inflicted severe environmental degradation on protected federal lands in Arizona, this report shows.
     With tighter border controls, illegal immigrants and their smugglers are targeting remote areas such as the Sonoran desert, where their lives are endangered by high heat and lack of water.
     The illegal immigrants damage or destroy sensitive vegetation and wildlife and leave behind large amounts of trash and human refuse.
     The report also notes that the large numbers of undocumented aliens intimidate legitimate visitors and create a serious safety concern for government employees doing their jobs in the field.
     Executive Summary

Corruption: The International Security Dimension
By Dr. Kimberley Thachuk
Paper delivered at the 2002 Pacific Symposium
"Addressing Transnational Security Threats in the Asia-Pacific Region"
National Defense University
     Summary: Thachuk explores the various ways corruption manifests itself and describes both its domestic and international impact. "Criminal organizations and terrorists use corruption to breach the sovereignty of many states and then continue to employ it to distort domestic and international affairs," she writes. "The threats these groups pose to international security are significant."
     Terrorist groups, like organized criminal groups, raise money through activities such as smuggling, drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, according to Thachuk. "As organized criminal groups do, to avoid detection and prosecution by justice officials, terrorist groups must pay for their operations to be overlooked by officials," she writes. Human and drug smuggling, however, are among their many activities that lend "an international wrinkle" to a domestic scourge.

The Nexus of Organized International Criminals and Terrorism
By Louise I. Shelley, Ph.D.
Paper delivered at the 2002 Pacific Symposium
"Addressing Transnational Security Threats in the Asia-Pacific Region"
National Defense University
     Summary: Human smuggling, along with drug and arms trafficking, remains an important source of illicit capital in the Pacific region, according to Shelley. In China, "the collusion of government officials is central to the capacity of smugglers to operate," she writes. And Fujian province, where so much of China's human trafficking originates, "is an area outside the control of the Chinese government where complicit officials allow the crime groups to operate."
     "Criminals and terrorists both engage in illicit activity," Shelley says. "The transnational criminals do this solely to make money. Whereas for terrorists, this ordinary criminal activity is used to support their larger political and ideological objectives. Yet the crimes committed by these two groups differ only in motive and not in substance. Both types of transnational criminals traffic drugs, human beings, counterfeit, and engage in diverse forms of fraud.... The war against terrorism cannot be separated from the fight against transnational crime."

Migration Merchants: Human Smuggling from Ecuador and China (PDF)
By David Kyle, University of California, Davis
and
Zai Liang, Queens College, CUNY
Working Paper No. 43
October 2001
The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies
University of California-San Diego
La Jolla, California
     Summary: The authors look at the historical context, social organization, and the recent trends in illegal immigration from two diverse sending provinces in China and Ecuador. Among their observations is the "commodification of the migration process."
     "By setting a consolidated price for a range of individual migration costs and services," the authors write, "it is much easier for the would-be migrant to view it as an entrepreneurial investment with risks and expected benefits not unlike those associated with attaining a college degree. And, like higher education, many are willing to pay the price because it does not only mean greater future earnings but an adventure in personal growth and education resulting in a higher social status -- within the home sending region."
     "When migration is paid for with future sacrifice, even relatively poor peasants can consider 'paying' thousands of dollars, thereby increasing the exchange value," Kyle and Liang say. "More importantly, the effect of rising prices is to create more demand since, for locals, it implies that (1) increasing earnings abroad are possible and expected; (2) prices must be rising because migration is popular, and, hence, a successful strategy; and (3) the migrant is 'worth' a large amount of money (much more than the sending state is willing to spend per capita on social welfare)."

U.S. and Multinational Coalition Disrupts Migrant Smuggling Operations
By Joseph R. Greene, Assistant Commissioner for Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
Arresting Transnational Crime, August 8, 2001
     Summary: Human smuggling is "21st century slavery" and a serious international problem facing democratic societies everywhere, according to Greene. He outlines a number of U.S. initiatives to combat the problem both unilaterally and multilaterally. Smugglers are "ruthless criminals," he says, noting that the INS's Border Safety Initiative in the year 2000 rescued some 2,500 illegal migrants who might have otherwise died in the hostile deserts along the southern border of the United States.

The Terrorists and Crime Bosses Behind the Fake Passport Trade
By Paul J. Smith, research fellow with the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii
Jane's Intelligence Review, July 1, 2001
     Summary: Terrorists and criminals are increasingly placing a premium on clandestine international mobility, which is helping to fuel the trade in human smuggling and identity fraud, according to this article.
     Passport fraud is an increasing problem, especially for countries with "visa-free" arrangements. Smith gives the following examples: "Chinese human smuggling syndicates have been known to rely on stolen Japanese passports -- the bearers of which are entitled to visa-free entry into the U.S.A. -- to smuggle Chinese nationals. Similarly, one of the co-conspirators in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 was caught at New York City's JFK airport, attempting to enter the country with a photo-substituted Swedish passport. Sweden is among the 29 countries that enjoy visa-free access to the U.S.A."
     Smith says human smuggling syndicates have developed reliable services and networks of transit stations and safe houses that could be used by terrorists willing to pay substantial sums of money.

The Triad Myth
By Tony Lee, Criminal Intelligence Analyst
Toronto Police Service
An edited version of a paper delivered to the
23rd International Asian Organized Crime Conference held in
Las Vegas, Nevada
April 2, 2001
     Summary: Forget what you've seen in the movies! Chinese triads are not controlled by a select few "godfathers/dragon heads" operating within a central command structure.
     According to Lee, triad societies are composed of small individual cells operating independently. Since their main motivation is making money, triad cells will fight each other if they must to control specific areas for their criminal activities, but they will also cooperate for financial gain.
     Triad membership serves primarily to facilitate introductions to other criminals and to reinforce cooperation in the pursuit of illegal endeavors, Lee says.
     In addition to examining how triad groups operate in North America, Lee reviews the history of triads that gave rise to "the triad myth."

Trafficking in Misery: Human Migrant Smuggling and Organized Crime (PDF)
By Lenore Richards
Gazette (A Royal Canadian Mounted Police Publication)
Vol. 63, No. 3, 2001

Informal Value Transfer Systems and Criminal Organizations: A Study into So-Called Underground Banking Networks (PDF)
By Nikos Passas, L.L.B., Ph.D., visiting scholar at the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts
A 1999 report written for the Dutch Ministry of Justice Research and Documentation Center
     Summary: Informal Value Transfer Systems (IVTS) -- also called "underground banking networks" -- are popular with millions of people because of their availability, convenience, and the anonymity they offer.
     In this report, Nikos Passas argues that while IVTS may attract criminals, they are "no more than one of numerous alternatives available to individual offenders and criminal organizations." Substantial amounts of money -- ill-gotten or not -- cannot be handled easily or at all by most IVTS, Passas notes.
     Included in this report are discussions of how Chinese operate IVTS (fei ch'ien or "flying money"), the Asian countries where IVTS can be found and the measures governments have taken to control these banking systems, and how human smuggling operations have used IVTS.
     Note: This is a PDF file (198 kb).

Chinese Criminal Enterprises
From a study done by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Asian Criminal Enterprise Investigations in the United States
By Ning-Ning Mahlmann, Ph.D.
September 1999
     Summary: Chinese criminals engage in activities considered to be more diverse and more complex than other Asian groups, according to this study.
     "U.S. law enforcement agencies face not only traditional organized crime problems within various Chinese communities such as extortion, murder, kidnapping, illegal gambling, prostitution, home invasion robbery and loan-sharking, but also international ethnic Chinese organized crime problems, including alien smuggling, drug trafficking, credit card fraud, theft of automobiles and computer equipment, counterfeiting, money laundering, and piracy of intellectual property," Mahlmann writes.
     Chinese criminal groups are greatly aided by their global personal (guanxi) and business connections. They demonstrate remarkable sophistication, flexibility and patience in their criminal endeavors.
     "Armed with their large sums of capital and shielded by their legitimate front companies, they have continued enriching themselves through their involvement in illegal business ventures with minimum risk," Mahlmann writes. "Chinese criminal enterprise, as a whole, is a persistent menace to the stability of the society and a continuing challenge for law enforcement agencies in the United States."

Alien Smuggling: Elements of the Problem and the U.S. Response
By Jonathan M. Winer
Trends in Organized Crime, Spring 1998
     Summary: The smuggling of persons both violates the human rights of the smuggled and corrupts basic governmental institutions wherever they transit, says Winer.

Money and "Guanxi:" Keys to Understanding Crime by Asians
By M. Cordell Hart
A paper prepared for a study on global organized crime by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.
March 8, 1996
     Summary: "Asian Organized Crime" is a misleading term, according to Hart. "The criminal activity of ethnic Asians -- with the notable exception of Japanese Boryokudan -- is rarely organized, at least in the way U.S. law enforcement defines the term" he writes.
     "While triads and other Chinese secret societies have offices, ranks, oaths, and other features of a continuing hierarchy, the structures serve more to bond their members than to direct members' activities," Hart writes. More important to the pursuit of criminal profits is "guanxi" -- interactions and personal relationships that form an Asian "social glue."
     Hart also discusses the underground banking network capable of moving hundreds of millions of dollars into and out of the United States.

Chinese Organized Crime and Illegal Alien Trafficking: Humans as a Commodity
By Jennifer Bolz
Asian Affairs, Fall 1995
     Summary: Asian crime gangs have become formidable international threats, says Bolz. "Triads have taken over the smuggling of illegal immigrants from smaller 'mom and pop' organizations as an increasingly attractive alternative to drug trafficking because it promises multibillion dollar profits without the same severe penalties if caught," she says.

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Coping with Illegal Immigration on the Southwest Border
Prepared testimony by David Aguilar
Chief, Office of Border Patrol
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Department of Homeland Security
Delivered before the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Committee on the Homeland Security
July 12, 2004
    Summary: An increasing number of "other than Mexican nationals" (OTMs) are illegally entering the United States, according to Aguilar.
    Apprehensions are running at a rate of 175 percent for fiscal year 2005 over fiscal year 2004's record number of OTM apprehensions on the southwest border, he said. Due to lack of adequate numbers of detention facilities, most illegals disappear when released by U.S. authorities. But the use of Expedited Removal proceedings (ER) for OTMs has shortened the time illegals spend in detention and nearly eliminated the time spent getting ready for and appearing before immigration courts and judges.

Alien Smuggling: New Tools and Intelligence Initiatives
Prepared testimony by John P. Torres
Deputy Assistant Director, Smuggling & Public Safety
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Delivered before the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims
Committee on the Judiciary
May 18, 2004
    Summary: "Human smuggling and trafficking into the United States constitute a significant risk to national security and public safety," Torres says. "We know that these smuggling and trafficking pipelines serve as a conduit for undocumented aliens and criminals seeking entry into the United States. However, they could just as easily be exploited by terrorist and extremist organizations seeking to gain entry into the United States in order to carry out their own destructive schemes....
    "The United States is a primary target destination for smugglers and traffickers, which means that literally tens of thousands of men, women and children are entering this nation illegally each year -- undocumented, undetected and unprotected. This international criminal market is extraordinarily lucrative, generating an estimated $9.5 billion in profit for criminal organizations worldwide. In many cases, these profits fuel additional criminal enterprises, such as the trafficking of drugs, weapons, or other contraband, or the funds are laundered and invested in legitimate business enterprises. These untraced profits feed organized crime activities, undermining governmental action and the rule of law, while allowing these criminal networks to grow stronger, more resilient, and more dangerous."

Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act of 2003 (CLEAR ACT)
Prepared testimony by John M. Morganelli
District Attorney, Northampton County, Pennsylvania
Capitol Hill Hearing: "Local Enforcement of Immigration Laws"
House Judiciary Committee
Immigration, Border Security and Claims Subcommittee
October 1, 2003
     Summary: In his prepared testimony, District Attorney Morganelli argues that "illegal immigration is having an extremely negative impact upon America at many levels."
     Morganelli notes: "Unfortunately, the majority of illegal aliens who are here are engaged in criminal activity. Identity theft, use of fraudulent social security numbers and green cards, tax evasion, driving without licenses represent some of the crimes that are engaged in by the majority of illegal aliens on a daily basis merely to maintain and hide their illegal status." According to Morganelli, identity theft, fraud and the use of false identification "is causing havoc with record-keeping systems including but not limited to Social Security, income tax and other compilation of data that we have routinely relied upon for accuracy and identity verification."
     "In addition, violent crime and drug distribution and possession is also prevalent among illegal aliens," he says. "Over 25 percent of today's federal prison population are illegal aliens."
     Estimates are that in Pennsylvania alone there are between 100,000 and 200,000 illegal immigrants. The direct cost to taxpayers as a result of the criminal acts committed by illegal aliens "are staggering," Morganelli says. In Pennsylvania, in fiscal year 1999, incarceration expenses for about 196,676 days of detention for illegal aliens in state and local jails and prisons came to $13,350,000," he says.

Alien Smuggling/Human Trafficking: Sending a Meaningful Message of Deterrence
Prepared testimony by Robert L. Harris
Deputy Chief, U.S. Border Patrol
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Delivered July 25 to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, Corrections and Victims' Rights Subcommittee
     Summary: More border patrol agents and greater vigilance in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have paid off, Harris says. Alien apprehensions have declined from a high of 1.6 million in fiscal year 2000, down to a 28-year low of less than 1 million in fiscal year 2002.
     The new Border Safety Initiative (BSI) is working to reduce injuries and prevent deaths among those illegal immigrants who try to enter the United States along the southwest border. "Striving to create a safer border environment, BSI is not only proactive in informing potential migrants of the hazards of crossing the border illegally, but also provides quick response to those who are in life-threatening situations," Harris says.

Alien Smuggling/Human Trafficking: Sending a Meaningful Message of Deterrence
Prepared testimony by Charles H. DeMore
Interim Assistant Director of Investigations
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Delivered July 25 to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, Corrections and Victims' Rights Subcommittee
     Summary: The fall of communism and deteriorating third world economies have fueled the dramatic rise of human smuggling and trafficking, DeMore says.
     International organized crime groups and criminal networks have capitalized on weak economies, he says, and corruption and improved international transportation infrastructure facilitate the smuggling and trafficking of some 700,000 to 2,000,000 people globally each year.
     According to DeMore, three factors have created an environment in which terrorists and smuggling enterprises may combine their criminal efforts to pose a significant national and international threat. They are: The involved criminal organizations growing volume and sophistication; their ability to exploit public corruption; and, lax immigration controls in source and transit countries

Alien Smuggling and Human Trafficking: Two Distinct Crimes Posing Challenges for International Law Enforcement
Prepared testimony by John Malcolm
Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice
Delivered July 25 to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, Corrections and Victims' Rights Subcommittee
     Summary: Alien smuggling and human trafficking subvert U.S. sovereignty, says Malcolm.
     "Alien smuggling puts the decision about who enters our country into the hands of criminals, who may not know and probably do not care if their actions help terrorists or other criminals to enter our country," Malcolm told the Senate panel. "Both alien smuggling and trafficking in persons strain limited resources and penalize persons who wish to enter our country legally. These crimes also enable international criminal organizations to flourish throughout the world, and breed corruption -- often of border officials in other countries - thereby undermining respect for the rule of law and harming basic democratic institutions."
     Malcolm challenged the idea that human smuggling is a "victimless" crime.
     "Smuggled migrants are often subjected to violence and inhumane and dangerous conditions. Some are trafficked into sexual exploitation or forced labor. Others die every year from drowning, abandonment, accidents or brutality by smugglers," he said. "Even if migrants arrive at their intended destinations alive and unscathed, however, smugglers have been known to extort the payment of their exorbitant fees by forcing migrants into virtual slavery, including selling them into sexual exploitation, or by holding family members back in the home country for ransom."

Alien Smuggling/Human Trafficking: Sending a Meaningful Message of Deterrence
Prepared testimony by Paul K. Charlton
United States Attorney, District of Arizona
Delivered July 25 to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, Corrections and Victims' Rights Subcommittee
     Summary: Charlton says that the increasing violence in the human smuggling "industry" has resulted in "a disturbing humanitarian crisis."
     Efforts by federal prosecutors to combat human smuggling, he says, "have been hindered by Sentencing Guidelines that inadequately address the level of suffering and risk which defendants involved in alien smuggling impose on their victims."

Human Trafficking: Transnational Crime and Links with Terrorism
By Louise Shelley, professor and director for the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at American University
Prepared testimony delivered before the House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on International Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Human Rights
June 25, 2003
     Summary: Shelley discusses five different "business models" that exist among human smugglers and traffickers. Each model, she writes, "is associated with a different national group and reflects deep historical influences, geographical realities and the market forces which drive the trade."
     Chinese operations for moving humans illegally, Shelley writes, "operate as a business that is integrated from start to finish.... This trade resembles other Chinese trade that is integrated across continents and results in significant investment capital for China. Much of the profits are repatriated and fuel the development in Southern China, Northern Thailand, Bangkok and beach resorts south of Bangkok."
     According to Shelley, the vast majority of Chinese are smuggled into the United States; but many are moved to other parts of the world, and their outcomes are different.
     Chinese smuggled to the United States are free after they have worked off their debt. But those smuggled into Italy, Shelley writes, "remain enslaved because individuals cannot be absorbed into the legitimate Italian economy and pay smugglers to transport other members of their families. In the United States, it is in the financial interests of the smugglers to uphold their contracts with those smuggled, but it is not in Italy."

U.S. Official Fears Terrorists, Human Smugglers May Join Forces
By Thomas Homan
Interim Associate Special Agent in Charge, San Antonio, Texas
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Department of Homeland Security
Testimony on alien smuggling delivered to
The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims
Committee on the Judiciary
June 24, 2003
     Summary: According to Homan, the conditions may be right for terrorist and human smugglers to join forces.
     A convergence of three factors has "created an environment in which terrorists and smuggling enterprises may combine their criminal efforts to pose a significant national and international threat, Homan writes. These factors, he says, include the (1) growing volume and sophistication of criminal organizations, (2) their ability to exploit public corruption, and (3) lax immigration controls in source and transit countries.

Tighter Border Controls Reduce Human Smuggling, Save Lives
By Jose E. Garza
Chief Patrol Agent, McAllen Sector Border Patrol
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
Testimony on alien smuggling delivered before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims
June 24, 2003
     Summary: Tighter border controls have reduced the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States and save lives, says Garza.
     According to Garza, tougher border controls initiated in 1997 have been successful. Illegal entries and apprehensions have dropped from nearly 245,000 in 1997 to 89,928 in 2002.

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