FOX First: Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday that would strengthen federal prosecution of people smuggled at the U.S.-Mexico border. did.
The bill, called the Border Smuggling Enforcement Act, aims to increase penalties for human traffickers by updating federal sentencing guidelines to better reflect the true number of smugglers.
“Criminals and human traffickers who exploit and smuggle people across our nation's southern border must pay a heavy price,” Ossoff said in a statement. It's being exploited.”
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A group of people claiming to be from India sit behind the border wall and wait to be picked up by Border Patrol agents after crossing the border fence in the Tucson sector of the U.S.-Mexico border near Lukeville, Arizona, on Aug. 29. , 2023. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
In recent years, federal authorities have reported an increase in the kidnapping and extortion of migrants in U.S. border cities, as human smuggling operations increasingly shift from humans to transnational criminal networks.
Ossoff's office said current federal guidelines do not adequately account for the exact number of stowaways and instead allocate sentencing enhancements based on a wide range of stowaways.
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. (Shannon Finney/Getty Images, RIAA)
Additionally, the bill increases sentencing levels when a victim experiences physical injury or death and increases fines based on the severity of the injury sustained. According to the bill's text, personal injury increases by two levels per person, serious injury by four levels, life-threatening or permanent injury by six levels, and each death by 10 levels.
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Sen. Jon Ossoff, Democratic Party (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
“Cartels on our southern border traffick and exploit innocent men, women and children every day,” Blackburn said in a statement. “Our bill will better hold these human smugglers accountable and ensure that sentences for these crimes reflect all the people these criminals harm and kill. It modernizes federal sentencing law.”
The bill comes as President-elect Trump promises to crack down on illegal immigration and the crisis at the southern border, making historic gains in the Democratic field.
The Democratic Party has chosen Vice President Kamala Harris as its presidential candidate and has struggled in this election campaign to combat illegal immigration.
This year, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general sent a report to Congress stating that over the past five years, more than 32,000 unaccompanied illegal alien children have failed to appear for their immigration court hearings and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement The bureau's investigation revealed that it could not explain the issue. A place for everyone who didn't show up.
Fox News Digital's Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
