Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis have each recently unveiled measures intended to prevent illegal immigration and human smuggling, moves made following the deaths of 51 human smuggling victims in a tractor trailer in Texas after an illegal border crossing.
An examination of the policies pursued by Abbott and DeSantis demonstrates the different tactics states with conservative leadership are taking to approach the border crisis. According to a news release from the governor's office, in Texas, Abbott has expanded border security efforts with the formation of Texas Department of Public Safety Strike Teams, with each unit including 20 members directed to high-traffic crossing regions at the state’s southern border, a move in direct response to the death of the migrants. Abbott also is directing materials, including barbed wire and fencing, to be used at the border, and he took to social media to point fingers at the Biden administration for the problem.
“Biden says he's doing everything possible to stop human smuggling. That's a lie,” Abbott alleged on Twitter. “What happened in San Antonio is a tragedy and it's not going to stop until Biden enforces our immigration laws. As he does nothing, Texas will continue to secure our border.”
In Florida, DeSantis also is ramping up efforts to thwart human smuggling, according to CBS News, which reported the Florida Supreme Court unanimously approved the governor’s plan to form a grand jury to examine human smuggling and trafficking as well as the impact of the border crisis on the Sunshine State.
According to the CBS News report, the grand jury will have statewide jurisdiction and will be seated for a year, serving in the 10th Judicial Circuit, which includes Hardee, Highlands and Polk counties. The CBS News report noted that 10th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Ellen Masters will be on the bench for the grand jury.
DeSantis, in a Fox News report, pointed out that forming the grand jury was integral to “examine international human smuggling networks that bring illegal aliens across the southern border and ultimately to states like Florida."
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez is also a supporter of the plan, and she told Fox News in the same report that the grand jury can help the state “take the next step investigating the criminal enterprises that are taking hold and child trafficking, human smuggling, drug smuggling.”
The issue remains problematic in both Florida and Texas, and Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Scholar Selene Rodriguez explained to the Austin Journal that human smuggling is just the first step in the chain of human trafficking.
“People who conspire with human smugglers to illegally enter the United States typically incur thousands of dollars of debt to make the trip,” Rodriguez told the publication. “After entering the country illegally, these same people are often forced to pay off that debt through forced labor and sexual exploitation, which is the essence of the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking.”
There also is data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website that hints at the number of border encounters are on the rise again in the wake of the pandemic, noting that over the last year of the Biden administration, the U.S. Border Patrol had 1,536,899 land border encounters along the southern border, up more than 200% since the end of the Trump administration.
Reuters reported that 51 migrants were found dead on June 27 in the back of a tractor trailer, victims of extreme heat in a smuggling effort that turned tragic. According to the news service, 39 men and 12 women were without water or air conditioning and succumbed to heat that rose to 103 degrees. Reuters also noted that Mexican nationals Juan Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D'Luna-Mendez, both Mexican nationals, are facing federal charges and a third suspect, the truck’s driver who is a U.S. citizen, also has been detained and likely will face charges. The case has shed a light on the issue of human smuggling and also has Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton casting blame on the Biden administration on social media.
“I am disappointed in SCOTUS allowing Biden to dissolve the Remain-in-Mexico program, one of our last and best protections against the Dems’ border crisis,” Paxton tweeted recently on Twitter. “I will continue to fight to secure our border and hold Biden accountable in my dozen other border-security suits in federal court.”