The tragedy that unfolded in Akwesasne last week, where Romanian and Indian families perished in the waters of the St. Lawrence, has highlighted the risks surrounding the irregular passage of migrants from Canada to the United States.
• Read also: Tragedy in Akwesasne: Migrant smugglers don’t even need to hide
In recent months, their numbers have exploded.
In 2022, US border agents in the Swanton sector, which covers almost the entire border between Quebec and the states of New York and Vermont, intercepted 2,076 people. However, in January and February 2023 alone, US authorities arrested 785 migrants who were trying to illegally cross Canada’s southern border.
While some entry points are well known – such as Roxham Road or the Akwesasne area – smugglers are not limited to them and try to get through wherever they can, as evidenced by dozens of arrests for human trafficking mediated by the American authorities.
According to a review of Log, smugglers have reportedly been arrested since 2021 in at least 16 different locations near the Canada-US border. Here are some examples.
HOGANSBURG, NEW YORK
In February 2021, Kyle Thompson, a resident of the American side of Akwesasne, went to pick up two Romanians who had just crossed the St. Lawrence River by boat to the United States and then on foot on the ice.
The goal was then to transport them to a motel located 40 km to the west, we learn in his guilty plea.
Thompson was apprehended by local police when he lost control of his vehicle, which crashed into a snowdrift, while trying to flee from authorities.
He admitted to having made the trip four other times. He pleaded guilty to alien trafficking charges.
CHURUBOSCO, NEW YORK
Photo taken from Facebook, US Border Patrol Swanton Sector
A Honduran citizen was arrested in August 2021 while attempting to smuggle five individuals from Guatemala and Italy through fields in the villages of Franklin, Montérégie, and Churubosco, New York. Their passage was, however, captured by surveillance cameras. The smuggler was sentenced to two years in prison.
HIGHGATE CENTER, VERMONT
One evening in October 2022, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police alerted their American counterparts to the fact that two individuals had just crossed the border. A United States Border Patrol agent who attended the scene reportedly saw a sedan waiting for them about a mile south of the border. The two Colombian migrants then reportedly emerged from a ditch and entered the sedan. Sebastian Buitrago-Valero, who was awaiting legal proceedings regarding his own immigration case, was charged with transporting individuals he knew had entered the United States illegally.
CHAMPLAIN, NEW YORK
Photo taken from Facebook, US Border Patrol Swanton Sector
Two men from Maryland were arrested last fall after picking up eight Mexican migrants who had just crossed the border on foot, near the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing in Montérégie. Alexander Guillen-Tamayo and Luis Madrigal-Grajales were then to lead them to Maryland, 800 km further south.
The two men were to get US$3,000 and US$1,500 respectively for the ride, they admitted in court.
DERBY, VERMONT
Photo courtesy of Betti Cervantes
On February 19, US border agents saw on their cameras three individuals crossing a forest to reach the United States. Once there, they discovered José Leos Cervantes (on the picture), visibly distressed, who was clinging to a tree and later collapsed, according to the authorities’ summary. The 45-year-old man was pronounced dead a few hours later.
On sight of the officers, the other two people ran back and were not apprehended.
Maria Constante-Zamora, of Ecuadorian origin, who was waiting for the migrants not far away, was arrested.