The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice jointly announced the first extraditions from Guatemala to the United States of four Guatemalan nationals on accusations of human smuggling resulting in death and the first extraditions from Guatemala of any type from the United States in nearly five years.
“This case demonstrates the deadly threat that human smuggling groups pose to the migrants they endanger and exploit,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a March 16 news release. “It also demonstrates that Joint Task Force Alpha and the entire Justice Department are doubling down on our efforts to disrupt and dismantle dangerous human smuggling operations and to find and bring to justice the perpetrators – no matter where they are.”
The information was made public during a Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) gathering in El Paso, Texas. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department's Criminal Division called the conference to bring together law enforcement leaders to talk about disrupting and dismantling human smuggling networks operating along the southwest border of the U.S.
Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas created the JTFA in June 2021 in response to the increase in dangerous and prodigious smuggling coming from Central America. The trafficking has had effects on American border towns. It focuses on networks that put migrants in danger, mistreat or exploit them, pose a threat to national security, or engage in other forms of transnational organized crime, the release states. JTFA’s mission is to disrupt and dismantle those human smuggling and trafficking networks operating in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
The creation of JTFA has resulted in increased coordination and collaboration between the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and other interagency law enforcement participants, as well as with foreign law enforcement partners in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico.
It has also successfully targeted organizations that have the greatest impact on the United States and coordinated significant smuggling indictments and extradition efforts in U.S. Attorneys' offices.
To date, the release states, work by JTFA and its partners have led to over 183 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and important facilitators of human smuggling activities, several dozen convictions, lengthy prison terms, the seizure of drugs, weapons, ammunition, and vehicles, and significant asset forfeiture.
