Mexico Trucker Online

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn announced new federal legislation Friday that aims to crack down on commercial truck drivers who smuggle illegal immigrants.The legislation, dubbed the Putting the Brakes on Human Smuggling Act, imposes tougher penalties against commercial truck drivers convicted of smuggling humans, said Cornyn, who was flanked at the Laredo North checkpoint by Carlos X. Carrillo, Laredo Sector Border Patrol chief; Gene Belmares, mayor pro tem; and Steve McCraw, Texas Homeland Security director, among others.

“While those who smuggle narcotics generally lose their commercial license permanently, human smugglers are often free to continue operating commercial vehicles and frequently continue to break the law,” Cornyn stated.

Under current federal law, those convicted of smuggling drugs can receive a lifetime suspension of their commercial driver’s license, with no opportunity to reapply. However, anyone convicted of smuggling humans can have their commercial driver’s license suspended for only a year.

And, if they receive a second conviction of smuggling illegal immigrants, they can wait up to 10 years before reapplying for a commercial driver’s license.

“We’re going to be urging colleagues of Congress to act to eliminate this disparity and make sure we discourage all manner of illegal activity here along the border region,” Cornyn said.

According to his legislation, anyone convicted of smuggling humans could receive a lifetime disqualification of their commercial driver’s license.

“This is not only a critical step in preventing further exploitation and endangerment of illegal immigrants, but it is also a matter of national security, as some smugglers may attempt to bring violent individuals and terrorists into our country,” Cornyn stated.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, introduced the same legislation in the House on Thursday, said Eddie Zavala, Cuellar’s Laredo area coordinator.

During his announcement, Cornyn cited the May 2003 incident in Victoria where 19 illegal migrants died after being abandoned in a sealed tractor-trailer.

The man held responsible for the deaths did not have his New York commercial driver’s license revoked because the crime was not a traffic offense, he said.

“We are all too familiar with the human smuggling tragedies that have occurred over the years in Texas and along our nation’s borders,” he stated in the same release.

“Every year thousands of people risk and lose their lives to illegally enter the United States. Not only do human smugglers show no regard for the laws of our country, but they actively put people in harm’s way by transporting them in their commercial vehicles.”

Cornyn’s announcement came at the same time as the Laredo Sector Border Patrol stated that the Texas Hold ‘Em initiative is in effect locally.

The permanent program, announced by Gov. Rick Perry on June 19, involves the Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrol working together to make sure anyone convicted of felony smuggling, whether it’s humans, drugs or weapons, has their commercial driver’s license revoked or suspended.

“The vast majority of truck drivers are, in fact, honest, patriotic, hardworking people,” Carrillo said. “But there is also a recognition that alien and drug smuggling organizations are aggressively recruiting truck drivers using prostitutes, the promise of fast money and drugs to tempt them, and transporting illegal aliens or narcotics away from our borders into our nation using their tractor-trailers.”

In the first eight months of fiscal year 2008, Texas Border Patrol agents intercepted 423 tractor-trailers, he said. Of those, 184 were intercepted in Laredo, he said.

The state’s right to revoke someone’s commercial driver’s license in light of a felony conviction has been on the books in Texas for years, but a system wasn’t in place to notify the DPS of the conviction.

The agencies now say a system has been worked out and Border Patrol will notify DPS when a commercial truck driver is convicted of a felony.

Ultimately, DPS will determine what action to take against the commercial truck driver.

Carrillo said he wanted to emphasize that Texas Hold ‘Em is not a “gotcha program,” but an essential element of the program is community outreach and educating the public and commercial truck drivers to ensure wide dissemination of the program.

“People who facilitate human trafficking are criminals, but the best way to deal with criminals other than prosecuting those who you catch once they’ve committed the crime is to try and discourage people from committing the crime in the first place,” Cornyn said.

This is what the Senate should be doing instead of introducing lame amendments to put the brakes on a successful program. MT is in full support of Senator Cornyn’s bill.