Experts warn US-Mexico immigration agreement will increase demand for human traffickers and smuggling
- Researchers say that as the National Guard presence increases on the southern border, the business of human trafficking will only grow
- Mexican and American authorities reached the agreement late Friday in the face of a US threat to levy five per cent tariffs on all Mexican imports
The immigration agreement between Mexico and the United States that averted US tariffs on Mexican imports has a clear beneficiary, experts say: human traffickers.
Under the pact reached Friday night, Mexico will deploy its recently created National Guard along the border with Guatemala, as well as dismantle groups that smuggle people across borders.
However, experts predict that as the National Guard presence increases on the southern border, the business of human trafficking will only grow.
“There will be more mechanisms of control, there will be greater rigidity, and that will cause an increase in the cost of crossing, which will strengthen organised crime’s business of trafficking people,” said Javier Urbano, a researcher in international affairs at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
“The greater the difficulty, the greater the cost and the greater the demand for traffickers,” he said.