Alien smuggling is the facilitation, transportation, or attempted transportation of a person, with his or her consent, across an international border, in violation of one or more countries’ laws. Often, alien smuggling is conducted in order to obtain a financial or other material benefit for the smuggler. The alien smuggling process from Mexico into the United States along the southwest border using the services of a smuggling organization is generally the same regardless of entry point. For instance, when individuals travel to populated areas in Mexico just south of the border, a smuggler representative will market smuggling services in that populated area, and then the individuals will be moved across the international border in some fashion (such as crossing a desert area or the Rio Grande river), usually with a group of other smuggled aliens. Once across the border, the smuggled aliens typically will be moved to a “stash house” where they arrange for payment. In general, smuggled aliens do not carry large amounts of cash when crossing the border for fear of being robbed. For many smuggled aliens their final destination is a city in the interior of the United States. To pay for their crossing these smuggled aliens have arranged in advance for a family member or friend, called a “sponsor,” in the interior city to send the payment to the smuggler, most commonly via a wire transfer company. Once payment is received, the aliens are moved to their final destination by the smuggling organization. Figure 1 illustrates how the alien smuggling process works for those aliens smuggled through Arizona. DHS ICE is responsible for investigating alien smuggling as well as detaining and removing aliens who are subject to removal from the United States. ICE focuses on enforcement of immigration and customs laws within the United States, and its mission is to detect and prevent terrorist and criminal acts by targeting the people, money, and materials that support terrorists and criminal networks. OI, among other things, is responsible for investigating alien smuggling violations at the border and beyond. In fiscal year 2010, OI had a budget of about $1.7 billion and as of November 2009 had a staff of about 8,600, which includes investigators and support staff responsible for all of OI’s investigative areas nationwide. The types of alien smuggling cases handled by OI can range from reactive cases, resulting from a particular incident or referrals from other law enforcement agencies, to proactive cases, resulting from intelligence gathering or use of financial investigative techniques. According to OI officials we interviewed, the majority of OI’s alien smuggling investigations are reactive cases initiated based on referrals from the Border Patrol or local law enforcement as a result of alien smuggling interdictions made by these agencies. Responding to these referrals leaves less investigative resources to initiate proactive investigations. In addition, investigations can vary in their complexity. For instance, some cases do not require extensive investigation and investigation is limited to prosecuting the alien smuggler caught in the act of smuggling aliens. Conversely, a recent investigation conducted by OI in El Paso led to the indictment of a hotel owner who devised a plan to smuggle hundreds of aliens into the country from Mexico and harbor them using his hotel and other locations until their families or “sponsors” paid a fee, usually through a wire transfer company such as Western Union or MoneyGram. This investigation took over 5 years and required the assistance of various federal and state agencies as well as private businesses. Also within ICE, DRO is responsible for detaining aliens who are subject to removal, including those smuggled into the country, and enforcing their removal from the United States. DRO’s mission is to ensure the departure of all removable aliens from the United States through enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws. In fiscal year 2010, DRO had a budget of about $2.6 billion and as of November 2009 had a staff of about 7,000. With the aid of CBP’s Office of Border Patrol and ICE’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), DRO operates and funds MIRP, which the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) began in 1996 in Southern California. MIRP was operated and funded by CBP in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. MIRP is a coordinated humanitarian effort between the governments of Mexico and the United States to return removable aliens who are citizens of Mexico further into the interior of Mexico in hopes of deterring them from again attempting illegal entry into the United States. As a voluntary humanitarian program with no prosecutorial consequence, candidates for MIRP include those who are identified as “high risk” when crossing the border illegally, such as women and children and the elderly or infirm, as these populations are particularly vulnerable to heat or risk of victimization by criminals operating in border regions. Aliens convicted of violent crimes are ineligible to participate in MIRP. Within CBP, the Border Patrol is responsible for the enforcement of federal immigration laws between official ports of entry. CBP’s National Border Patrol Strategy outlines two goals in regard to alien smuggling: (1) deter illegal entries through improved enforcement and (2) detect, apprehend, and deter smugglers of humans and drugs and other contraband. In fiscal year 2010, the Border Patrol’s budget was about $3.6 billion, and as of November 2009, the Border Patrol had about 20,000 agents nationwide with about 17,000 agents deployed along the southwest border. In order to deter aliens from repeatedly crossing the border illegally and to deter alien smuggling, CBP implemented a number of enforcement programs from 2004 through 2008. CBP has two prosecutorial enforcement programs—Operation Against Smugglers Initiative on Safety and Security (OASISS) and Operation Streamline. The OASISS program, implemented in August 2005, is a bilateral agreement between Mexico and the United States that allows CBP to transfer selected alien smugglers that a U.S. Attorney’s office has declined to prosecute to Mexico for prosecution. Operation Streamline, started in December 2005, prosecutes selected aliens apprehended by the Border Patrol for illegal entry under federal law. Those convicted face up to 180 days of incarceration. Another enforcement program the Border Patrol operates is the Alien Transfer Exit Program (ATEP) in which removable aliens are bused from their original apprehension location to another Border Patrol location for removal. ATEP is designed to disrupt the ability of alien smuggling organizations to operate by deterring aliens from repeatedly crossing the border illegally and from seeking the assistance of smuggling organizations. Under ATEP, removable aliens must meet certain criteria in order to participate in the program. For example, an alien must be a male from the ages of 20 to 60 with no medical conditions or criminal history. Appendix II provides additional information regarding CBP’s and DRO’s alien smuggling-related enforcement programs. Outside of DHS, Justice and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) play significant roles in addressing alien smuggling. In particular, Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s offices collaborate with OI during the course of alien smuggling investigations by obtaining grand jury subpoenas, warrants, and wire taps. If an alien smuggling case meets certain thresholds established by the relevant U.S. Attorney, such as a minimum number of aliens smuggled, the U.S. Attorney is to ultimately prosecute the case. Of the 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States and its territories, those in the five southwest border districts prosecuted 85 percent of all alien smuggling cases nationwide in fiscal year 2009. Within Treasury, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) serves as a central resource for financial intelligence information and analysis that law enforcement agencies use to conduct alien smuggling investigations. FinCEN administers the largest financial transaction reporting system in the world, which is based on reporting requirements mandated or authorized under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). OI has access to BSA data for its alien smuggling investigations through a database maintained by FinCEN. OI investigators can use this database to trace financial transactions associated with a suspected alien smuggler to assist in determining the identity of other individuals involved in alien smuggling and to locate funds that could be subject to seizure if tied to alien smuggling. In 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act established the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center (HSTC) in order to achieve greater integration and overall effectiveness in the U.S. government’s law enforcement efforts, and to work with other nations to address the issues of alien smuggling and human trafficking. According to its charter, the center’s role is supportive rather than directive in nature and consists primarily of facilitating the dissemination of intelligence, preparing strategic assessments, identifying issues that would benefit from enhanced interagency coordination or attention, and coordinating or otherwise supporting agency or interagency efforts in appropriate cases. HSTC is guided by a steering group comprising senior representatives from DHS, Justice, and the Department of State and relies on full-time detailees from its participating departments to function. HSTC is housed within the Department of State and is currently managed by ICE officials. To prosecute alien smugglers, federal officials generally use section 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which is codified and most frequently referred to by federal law enforcement as 8 U.S.C. § 1324. This statute provides criminal penalties for several types of conduct related to alien smuggling, including bringing an unauthorized alien into the United States in any manner whatsoever; bringing an alien into the United States at a place other than a port of entry, regardless of whether the alien has received prior authorization to enter the country; domestic transport of an alien who has entered or remains in the United States in violation of law, in furtherance of such violation; concealing or harboring such an alien; and encouraging or inducing an alien to enter or reside in the United States in violation of law.