Leave it to the pros. As a result, immigration officials now estimate that 80 to 90 percent or more of the aliens sneaking into the United States from Central America, China, India, and Pakistan are being aided by a smuggler. It is impossible to get hard numbers, but the IOM estimates that from 200,000 to 300,000 Central American nationals attempt to enter the United States yearly with the aid of traffickers. Illegal immigration from China is estimated at 10,000 to 50,000 a year. And intelligence reports suggest that up to 40,000 South Asians wait for transport to America in Russia, where a lawless atmosphere has turned Moscow into a veritable bazaar for the alien smuggling trade.
Impunity certainly describes the operations of the two most potent Chinese syndicates.
The first group, based in Sao Paulo, is said to move aliens through Central America, over the U.S. border, and on to Phoenix, Houston, and Los Angeles for delivery along the Eastern seaboard. INS officials say they're investigating these rings. Investigators say ring organizers generally use a network of freelance contractors who perform specific tasks or control smuggling territories along the way to America. These gangs hold migrants in safe houses, or keep them in indentured servitude in sweatshops, until the smuggling fees are paid. The fee, tens of thousands of dollars a head, is often put up by extended families and friends in China and the United States, since the cost represents the equivalent of 20 years' salary for average wage earners back home.