New migrant smuggling routes to the US

Charter flights represent a new phase of illegal immigration.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters One Essential Read One Essential Read Recommended by Kate Turton, Newsletter Editor Inside two new routes that take Indians and Africans via Central America   Charter flights represent a new phase of illegal immigration to the US, five US officials said in interviews with Reuters. Increasingly, they said, migrants from outside Latin America are paying smuggling networks hefty fees for travel packages that can include airline tickets – on charter and commercial airlines – to fly to Central America and then bus rides and hotel stays en route to the US-Mexico border. "You have certain charter transportation companies charging extortion-level prices to prey on and profit from vulnerable migrants and facilitating irregular migration to the United States," Eric Jacobstein, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere, told Reuters. Read the full article Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Between June 17 and August 16, Reuters One Essential Read is sent three days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Reuters Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036