Human Trafficking in North America, from North to South/South to North

"The northern border, it always has been, but it's gotten much worse, much more prevalent because ... it's a multibillion-dollar business, the smuggling of drugs, guns and humans."

"Law enforcement officers operating in these areas [parts of Vermont and New York] have seen unprecedented traffic from illegal aliens."

"Law enforcement encountered aliens from 97 different countries, including China, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea and Yemen."

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi 

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks during a human smuggling news conference Thursday Sept. 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

 

Joint Task Force Alpha, a multiagency effort to halt smuggling of people into the United States, has now been expanded to include the Canada-U.S. border, along with the United States' maritime border. This is a necessary change, Attorney General Pam Bondi explained, since human traffickers have been focusing their illegal trade north, in the wake of the Trump administration's crackdown at the Mexican border.

 

This, following a meeting with Canada's Justice Minister Sean Fraser, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, and Kevin Brosseau, Canada's "fentanyl czar" in discussions relating to the shared border that took place in Washington. The August 27 meeting readout expanded on Canada's ongoing efforts to keep communities safe "on both sides of our shared border in the fight against fentanyl and transnational criminal organizations, to strengthen the criminal justice system and border security".

 

This, against a background where President Trump hit his northern neighbour with wide-ranging tariffs, on the basis of declaring an emergency at the northern border with the U.S. The initial tariff rate imposed in March was raised in August to 35 percent, hitting back at Ottawa's retaliatory tariffs while once again citing border security issues outstanding.  

 

At the time of the original tariffs assessed back in March Ottawa acted quickly in hopes of decelerating an impending trade war that was certain -- given the two countries' long history of intertwined manufacturing and trade -- to do significant harm to both Canada's and the U.S.'s economies. The two sides have met at the White House and although relaxed discussions took place, the American position spelled out by the president did not relent.

 

In strenuous efforts to reassure the American side that Canada was making a real effort to satisfy its demands over the issue of human smuggling, the Canada Border Services Agency noted it had opened 80 cases with links to human smuggling with eight charges in six cases resulting in convictions for 2025. In 2024, 83 cases had been opened; a year earlier, 57, so Canada has not been lagging on the file. 

 

Human smuggling at the border is also a two-way issue."We have a strong border, and we are making it stronger", the Canadian agency remarked, with an additional $355 million allocated to it, reflecting the border plan of the federal government in Ottawa.

 

Signs mark the international boundary at a Canada-US border crossing known as the Peace Arch Border Crossing, on the day President Donald Trump announced new tariffs, in Blaine, Washington, on April 2, 2025.   David Ryder/Reuters/File

 

 According to border state American politicians, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, instances of human smuggling across the Canada-U.S. border in recent years have been a concern. There was a case of four members of a family from India who attempted to transit Canada walking across a wooded area in Manitoba in winter -- parents with an 11-year-old girl, and a 3-year-old-son -- were found frozen to death, only a short distance from the American border; sad casualties of a desperate attempt to reach the U.S. although they had lived for a brief period in Canada.

 

During the news conference where Bondi spoke of the issue, the indictment of a Michigan woman was mentioned. People, including children, from Central America were smuggled by this woman into the United States last year, across the border with Canada. From February to November, according to the indictment, Norma Linda Lozano, 53, was involved with a smuggling organization bringing Guatemalans, Hondurans, Mexicans and El Salvadorans across the Canada-U.S. border.

 

U.S. Border Patrol agents who patrol the Swaton Sector out of Champlain, N.Y., transport detained Mexican nationals to cells at their border station. (CBC)

 

An investigation by RCMP Federal Policing – Eastern Region has led to charges laid against two individuals who allegedly facilitated the illegal entry of persons from the United States to Canada. William Lamadine, 36, of Niskayuna, New York, and Yaya Hassan Yaya Abderaman, 35, of Jersey City, New Jersey, are charged with organizing entry into Canada, contrary to section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, conspiracy to organize entry into Canada, and conspiracy to bribe an officer, in this case an employee of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). They were arrested in September 2023 at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing.

According to the investigation by the Airport and Federal Investigations Detachment, initiated following CBSA procedures, the two men allegedly organized the entry of over 50 migrants into Canada by bus over a period of around three months. William Lamadine was employed as a bus driver for the company used.

A request for extradition to Canada is being considered. The investigation is ongoing.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police news release, March 2005 

An increase in  trafficking since 2023 has been taking place across the Canadian border with New York and Vermont, where the DOJ is expanding its task force, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Individuals operating smuggling operations, according to a senior departmental official, are largely from South and Central America -- not Canada -- flying north. This has taken place in relation to "progress that's been made on dismantling some of the organizations at the southern border and shutting off some of their routes to the U.S.", the official explained.

 

Donald Trump has warned that the United States has a growing migrant problem on its northern border. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)