Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, a Guatemalan national charged with human smuggling accusations, has been arrested. The arrest was part of a joint action of the Guatemalan and the US police to dismantle a human smuggling network.
According to a press release by the official website of the US government for Homeland Security, Miranda-Orozco is charged with six counts related to migrant smuggling, which could result in life imprisonment, VisaGuide.World reports.
The Guatemalan national is reportedly linked to a network which was responsible for the death of 53 migrants, 21 of which were Guatemalans. These people died in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas. Miranda-Orozco is accused of charging migrants between $12,000 and $15,000 for the journey.
As alleged in the indictment, Miranda-Orozco recruited some of the migrants who died in the back of a tractor-trailer near San Antonio, Texas, in June 2022 and worked with a network of smugglers to transport them from Guatemala through Mexico into the United States.
Irregular Border Crossings to the US Are on the Rise, Data Show
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, a total of 2.05 million people entered the US in 2023. That is down by 160,000 border crossings, but in general, this trend is on the rise.
More specifically, the number of irregular border crossings recorded in the US between 200 and 2023 is exponentially higher in recent years, particularly in post-pandemic times.
In 2021, 1.6 million border crossings were registered, two times more than the number of detections recorded in 2019.
The data further reveals that in 2023, over 240,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans arrived as legitimate migrants to the US and were granted parole under the parole processes.
In addition, 52,053 Cubans, 96,445 Haitians, 44,298 Nicaraguans, and 73,092 Venezuelans were authorized to travel, and 50,185 Cubans, 85,258 Haitians, 38,070 Nicaraguans, and 66,893 Venezuelans arrived and were granted parole.
US Imposes Visa Requirements to Nearly 300 Guatemalans
The US government has introduced visa requirements for approximately 300 Guatemalans in response to the political situation in the country.
Nearly 100 of these nationals are members of the Guatemalan Congress, and the new measure comes in solidarity with the US government with the newly elected president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arevalo, who was elected in August of 2023.
Today’s actions reinforce previous measures by the U.S. government to promote accountability for corrupt and undemocratic actors in Guatemala and to support the will of the Guatemalan people. The Guatemalan people have spoken. Their voices must be respected.
Guatemalans need to obtain a visa, more specifically, a B1/B2 Visa, to travel to the US.