The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up efforts to target human smuggling operations as officials cite growing concerns about sophisticated criminal networks that transport migrants for profit, expanding beyond the southern border.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in Tampa on Thursday that this will be done through the expansion of a national human trafficking task force.
"We are investigating and prosecuting their crimes more aggressively than ever, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear," she said.
The Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) was created by the Biden administration in 2021 to investigate and prosecute criminals smuggling people across U.S. borders. It is aimed at cracking down on operations often linked to cartels that can expose migrants to exploitation and abuse.
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Bondi said the initiative will expand from a joint operation between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to also include manpower and resources from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Federal Bureau of Investigtion (FBI).
Joint Task Force Alpha, which has brought hundreds of cases since its creation, is now targeting the northern border by having prosecutors from the Justice Department’s criminal division work with U.S. attorneys’ offices in Vermont and the Northern District of New York to investigate and bring cases, officials said.
It's the latest effort by the Justice Department to thwart smuggling, which can have deadly consequences. In 2022, 53 immigrants died in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in the nation's deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. Two smugglers convicted of federal charges in connection with the deaths were sentenced in June to life in prison.
Four cases recently charged by the department highlight how smugglers rake in huge profits sneaking migrants into the U.S. In one recently charged case, authorities allege children were given THC-laced candy in order to sedate them as they were being taken across the border. In another case, prosecutors charged a woman accused of transporting migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador who had crossed over from Canada.
“They exploit those people who are desperate and misguided enough to try to enter the country illegally,” said Michael Drescher, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Vermont. “On the northern border, such illegal crossings frequently involve trekking through forests and swamps in inhospitable and dangerous circumstances.”
Another case involved 12 people being charged in Tampa for what Bondi called "an international alien smuggling ring."
Prosecutors said the defendants prepared and sold fraudulent visas and asylum documentation primarily to Cuban individuals between 2021 and 2025.
Prosecutors also said migrants were charged as much as $40,000, and more than $7 million in Zelle payments were exchanged.
"The defendants engaged in a conspiracy to bring illegal aliens from Cuba to the U.S. for profit. They coached their clients, including children, who came to airports alone, came to our country alone," Bondi said.
When asked how prevalent trafficking crimes were in Tampa, Bondi said terrorist organizations are in every city in the U.S., and around 55 people have been charged nationally since January.
