Innovative border smuggling

Houston Chronicle:

U.S. Border Patrol agent John Lopez has seen it all: Men hiding in tiny holes in the ground, in car trunks and behind seat backs. He’s even captured an illegal immigrant hiding in a suitcase.

“You don’t expect to find someone in a suitcase. You never expect that,” said Lopez, who is based in the Rio Grande Valley.

Each year, agents see many brazen attempts to sneak people and drugs into the U.S. But as border enforcement has stepped up in the past two years, smugglers’ schemes appear to be getting more creative and bolder than ever. Among the most recent:

• In Presidio County along the Texas-Mexico border, a man trained illegal immigrants who had just crossed the border to fake illnesses and call 911. Unwitting ambulance attendants took them to an Alpine hospital beyond the Border Patrol checkpoint near Marfa. The immigrants would refuse treatment and run away. Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela, 38, was arrested in March and pled guilty to smuggling charges in the scheme.

• In the past few months, officials have intercepted three ultralight aircrafts attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S. The small planes fly so low they evade radar and have been particularly active on the Arizona-Mexico border.

• In California, smugglers meticulously painted vehicles to resemble DHL package delivery trucks and a company contracted to help build the border fence. They used the vehicles to transport illegal immigrants to the U.S. in March and April. Some people in the construction company truck wore reflective vests and hard hats.

...

Whatever the motivation behind smuggling schemes, almost every agent has stories about the most creative ways people and drugs have been smuggled into the U.S.

Among the most famous is the piñata used to smuggle a toddler in 2004. In the 1990s, smugglers even managed to create real-looking Border Patrol vehicles, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Michael Reilly.

“Maybe we’re seeing a little more. But maybe we’re catching more,” Reilly said. “We have better technology, better infrastructure and better efficiency.”

...

Then there is the myth of the open borders crowd that smuggling will be reduced by "immigration reform." At best this is an example of hope over experience. The best way to stop it is to continue to raid businesses that hire illegals and not just punish employers. If there are no consequences to coming here illegally then we will have more people coming. That is what the "immigration reform" crowd does not comprehend.