MIAMI — The United States sanctioned a Guatemala-based human trafficking organization on Thursday, saying its activities pose a threat to national security. It accused the organization of facilitating the illegal entry of thousands of migrants across the border with Mexico, transporting them, and harboring them once they were inside the country.
The measures announced by the Treasury Department against the human smuggling organization called López —named after its leaders— seek to stop the entry of migrants at the southern border of the United States, at a time when the government of President Joe Biden is harshly criticized for having allowed the massive entry of migrants since taking office in January 2021.
Immigration has become one of the central issues in the discussion surrounding the upcoming presidential elections in November and the government is seeking to show that it has been able to control the illegal entry of migrants across the border.
Sanctions
The sanctions are in addition to others recently announced against the Aragua Train, a Venezuelan human smuggling and trafficking group, and against Abdul Karim Conteh, a transnational organized crime group from Mexico and Tijuana. The government has also penalized executives of travel agencies and maritime and bus transportation companies that transport migrants to the border with similar measures.
“We are constantly looking for these criminals who are getting rich by exposing migrants to incredible risks and which, unfortunately, very often end in tragedy,” said Blas Nuñez-Neto, advisor to President Joe Biden on immigration and border issues.
“We will continue to operate as we have been operating, sanctioning criminals who expose migrants,” he said in a press conference by telephone.
Migrant trafficking
The López organization is led by Rolando Galindo López Escobar, his son Whiskey Hans López Ambrosio and his wife Karen Stefany Hernández Vanegas, who along with five other people face charges in federal courts in the district of New Mexico for an alleged criminal conspiracy to transport and harbor foreigners who arrived in the United States illegally.
The government believes the group has smuggled thousands of migrants from Guatemala into the United States through the Mexican border. The organization has operated primarily in the states of New Mexico, Arizona and California, but its activities have also reportedly extended to certain areas of Texas and even to states far from the border, such as Virginia.
According to the charges, the Lopezes purchased fraudulent Mexican documents and paid cartels to facilitate the movement of migrants through Mexico. As the business grew, the organization purchased buses to transport them to the United States.
The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known as OFAC, sanctioned the Lopez organization and its leaders. As a result, all movements of their assets and property are blocked and must be reported to the U.S. government. In addition, any institution or person that engages in transactions or activities with them could also be sanctioned.
These sanctions are in addition to a series of measures taken by the US authorities to discourage the illegal entry of foreigners at the border, including tougher conditions for those seeking political asylum.
In the past seven weeks, since the latest measures went into effect, U.S. officers’ encounters with migrants at the southern border have dropped by 55%, according to the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. In June, the Border Patrol recorded 83,536 encounters per day, the lowest level since January 2021.
Source: With information from AP
