What is RICO?

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The Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants
United Nations Web Site

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Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention
United Nations Web Site

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Triennial Comprehensive Report on Immigration
INS Web Site

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National Worker Exploitation Task Force
Justice Department Web Site

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Recognizing Illegal Immigration Activity
INS Web Site

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Despite lenient U.S. immigration policies, smugglers are making big money transporting illegal aliens into the United States.

Why?

"It's all about greed," says James Chaparro, director of anti-smuggling at the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

Worldwide, human smuggling is a big business. While exact figures for this underground enterprise are impossible to pin down, estimates range anywhere from $4 billion to $14 billion per year, with $7 billion the most frequently cited figure, Chaparro told The Washington File in a recent interview. Informal estimates of illegal immigrants entering the United States run to as high as 40,000 per year, he said.

Chinese smugglers - or "snakeheads" - charge fees ranging anywhere from $35,000 to $60,000 per person, he said.

More money is to be made when migrants are sold from one smuggler to another in order to collect their transport fees, Chaparro said. With increasing frequency, rival smuggling gangs will steal migrants from each other, oftentimes at gunpoint, he said. In one case in Phoenix, Arizona, a gang attempt to steal illegal migrants ended in three deaths, including that of a 15-year-old boy, Chaparro said.

"We're seeing an escalation in violence in smuggling gangs," Chaparro said, not only between gangs but also against immigration agents. "It's not at all uncommon for U.S. agents along our borders to be shot at or assaulted with rocks and other weapons," he said.

U.S. Policy

"The United States has one of the most generous legal immigration policies of any industrialized country," Chaparro said. "The number of programs that allow people to come to the United States legally is huge."

According to INS statistics (The Triennial Comprehensive Report on Immigration for May 1999), an average of 830,000 foreign-born individuals were admitted to the United States for lawful permanent residence each year between 1992 and 1994. This figure is expected to grow to about 900,000 per year.

"The focus of the U.S. government's policy is that we want to encourage legal immigration while at the same time shutting the door to illegal immigration, because it's only through legal immigration that you can have faith in our nation's laws," Chaparro said.

The rule-of-law that helps make the United States such a prosperous nation and attractive place to live doesn't much help illegal aliens. They live in fear both from the smugglers to whom they owe money as well as U.S. authorities.

Alien smugglers, Chaparro said, "are ruthless and greedy. They will subject people to all sorts of dangerous conditions in order to circumvent the immigration laws and bring them to the United States."

Illegal migrants, he said, "are endangered from the moment they leave their homes until the moment they get to the United States."

Once in the United States, illegal aliens oftentimes are exploited and abused by the smugglers as well as their employers who know the migrants are too afraid to go to U.S. authorities, Chaparro said.

Illegal aliens, however, can get some help under U.S. laws, according to Chaparro. He noted that the S Visa (which allows for permanent U.S. residence) is available for people who cooperate with U.S. authorities in investigating certain types of crime committed in conjunction with human smuggling, such as extortion, hostage taking, and kidnapping for ransom.

"Some of the cases where we've seen S Visas granted aren't always for the 'kingpin' smugglers," he said. "It may be for a smuggler who was particularly dangerous or particularly brutal; and as such it's an important case," Chaparro said. He cautioned that only a few hundred S Visas have been authorized. "I don't want to put the word out that if you come forward that it's a guarantee that you're going to have a ticket to stay in the United States," he said. "These things are looked at very carefully."

U.S. laws prohibit the use of force or threats to make someone work -- especially in prostitution -- to pay off a debt. Those who are forced to work or held against their will can get help from the U.S. government by calling the National Worker Exploitation Complaint Line operated by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor. The toll-free number - 1-888-428-7581 - offers services in several languages, including Chinese.

Who are the Smugglers?

Human smuggling is a crime committed both by opportunistic "entrepreneurs" as well as more traditional organized crime groups, according to Chaparro.

"Clearly, there are organized criminal groups participating in alien smuggling of PRC (People's Republic of China) nationals," he said. "We see very well organized, very well connected, established Triads that are actively engaged in not only alien smuggling but other criminal activities - money laundering, prostitution, illegal gambling. These organizations will engage in a variety of illegal activities to make a profit."

"We also see 'crimes of opportunity,'" Chaparro said, involving, for example, business owners who bring in illegal aliens. "They may not be organized smugglers, but they see this as an opportunity to recruit some cheap labor to work in their company or their factory."

Some fraud facilitators - for example, those who produce counterfeit visas -- operate independently and not in an organized fashion to get illegal aliens into the United States, Chaparro said. Others are working in direct coordination with larger scale smuggling syndicates, he said.

Economic disparities among nations, dissatisfied populaces, and the huge profits will keep alien smugglers in business for the foreseeable future, Chaparro said.

"Smugglers are becoming more and more sophisticated," he said. It's not at all uncommon for us to see smugglers using e-mail and encrypted cell phones and GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation equipment as they're walking through the desert. And the reason they can do this is because the profits are so high."

Human Smuggling and U.S. Laws

As more public attention is being focused on the crimes involved with human smuggling, legislators will be under more pressure to target the most serious offenders, Chaparro predicts.

The U.S. Congress provided law enforcement with a powerful tool in 1996 by making alien smuggling a RICO offense, Chaparro pointed out.

(RICO -- Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act -- is a federal statute originally enacted in 1970 to control organized crime. In the early 1990s, the law was expanded to target non-traditional organized crime groups.)

"RICO is tremendous not only for prosecuting the illegal criminal enterprise but also for going after assets that are derived as a result of that criminal activity," Chaparro said.

"Congress gave us the ability to conduct wire taps - Title 3 Wire Intercepts - which has been for us a powerful tool in really getting at the high-level smuggling organizations," he added.

Congress has also granted law enforcement the authority to conduct proprietary investigations, Chaparro said.

"For example, we had a recent case - in the 'Houston Operation Night Riders' - where we (law enforcement personnel) posed as a load house or a drop house operator and we actually had smugglers bringing people to us. We had numerous successful prosecutions develop out of that case at a fairly high level."

In addition, mandatory minimum sentences have been established for smuggling for financial gain or through areas other than ports of entry, he said.

Heavier penalties are being assigned to alien smuggling crimes, Chaparro said.

"Just yesterday we had a person in Los Angeles (California) who was sentenced to life in prison for alien smuggling," he said. " We had a Houston (Texas) case where a person who was involved in alien smuggling/hostage-taking was sentenced to 27 years on prison."

A smuggling-related incident in Phoenix, Arizona resulted in five perpetrators being sentenced to six consecutive life terms in prison, he said. "So we have seen some very significant sentences."

Chaparro acknowledged that penalties for alien smuggling are not, on average, as stiff as those for drug trafficking. "But for the smugglers who are engaged in the large-scale organizations, there can be very serious consequences," he said. "And if there's danger involved for the migrants, or death or injury of migrants, the sentencing enhancements that go along with that type of criminal conduct can be tremendous."

The International Response

While the United States is a major destination country for illegal immigrants, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and other nations are experiencing large influxes of undocumented migrants as well. "It is truly a global problem," Chaparro said.

To deal with this growing surge of illegal migrants, the United States and 78 other countries signed the United Nations Protocol Against Smuggling Migrants in December 2000 in Palermo, Italy. The protocol will go into effect when 40 of these countries have ratified it.

"The simple fact that this issue has been put on the 'front burner' in such a high-profile environment has really made a lot of countries take a more serious look at alien smuggling and illegal migration," Chaparro said.

"For example, the disrupt operation we just completed in Central and Latin America - 'Operation Crossroads International.' We had 13 Central American and Caribbean countries participating in a very concentrated effort to combat illegal migration in those countries for aliens destined to the United States," Chaparro said. "In just a two-and-a-half week period, there were 38 smugglers arrested and approximately 7,900 migrants who were interdicted trying to transit to the United States and subsequently repatriated to their home countries.

"So the fact that these governments participated in such a large-scale operation really shows their commitment to controlling illegal migrations," he said.

Nonetheless, laws vary greatly towards illegal migration in various countries.

China, for example, has laws prohibiting people from leaving the country illegally as well as stiff laws against corruption and forged documents, Chaparro said.

Chinese government officials, he said, are starting to take a serious look at the migration issue. "But it's a difficult balance for them, I think, policy wise, because expatriate Chinese who reside around the world send a large amount of money to China every year," he said. "It definitely helps the economy."

With more than a billion people to contend with and unemployment a problem, China has in the past encouraged migration to other parts of the world, Chaparro said. So the attitude in China, he said, is that migration is helpful in some ways.

Yet Chinese officials recognize that illegal migration contributes to corruption and fraud problems within China. "The biggest problem is that Chinese nationals who leave the PRC often find themselves in pretty desperate situations," he said.

The Chinese government has cooperated with the United States, he said, on a number of illegal smuggling cases - most notably that of the notorious Cheng Chui-ping, or "Big Sister Ping."

Cheng ran a sophisticated operation that moved as many as 3,000 illegal Chinese aliens to the United States. She was arrested in April 2000 in Hong Kong after a worldwide hunt led by U.S. law enforcement. Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa recently signed her extradition orders to the United States. If convicted of federal racketeering charges, Cheng could face life imprisonment without parole.

"The simple fact that the Chinese government allowed the extradition to go forward is a good example of their willingness to cooperate with us, especially on such a high profile case," Chaparro said.

Chinese authorities have also successfully interdicted several vessels attempting to leave China illegally, he noted.

"As with any country, there is always room for some improvement," Chaparro said. "We would like to see closer cooperation on law enforcement issues and sharing of intelligence on smuggling organizations. But I think they've come a long way in the last several years."

Economically vibrant Taiwan is an important transit country and -- to a smaller extent -- source country for illegal migrants, Chaparro said. There the major problem is fraudulent Taiwanese passports that are provided to illegal PRC migrants, he said.

Taiwanese officials, Chaparro said, have been willing to cooperate with American law enforcement on a number of illegal migration issues, especially those involving "hijacked" Taiwanese fishing trawlers that smuggle aliens to Guam.

Thailand - both a major source and transit country for illegal migrants - has been especially willing to cooperate with U.S. law enforcement officials, according to Chaparro.

"They have a very large counterfeit document trade in Thailand," Chaparro said. "We've had some tremendous successes with the Royal Thai Police on going after these organizations and seizing literally thousands and thousands of fraudulent passports for people who had been destined for the United States."

Chaparro acknowledged that there is a fair amount of sympathy for illegal migrants, both in the United States and in other countries. "These people are oftentimes in dire straits in their countries," he said.

"You can't blame a lot of these people for wanting to come to the United States. There is tremendous economic opportunity here. Unfortunately, they are often sold a false bill of goods by the people who recruit them."

The major issue, Chaparro said, is the smuggling operations that prey on the desperation of the migrants. "That really has to be the focus of the majority of our law enforcement efforts, because the smugglers really put these people at great risk," he said.

July 2001

-- Story by Jane Morse, Washington File senior writer