Page 19 - 072517

Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, July 25, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 025 ~ 19 of 38
Truck drivers are low-level cogs in a big machine, recruited in the U.S. at casinos and other places where smuggling organizations look for people who are down on their luck, desperate for quick cash and disinclined to ask questions.
James Matthew Bradley Jr., who made an initial court appearance Monday in San Antonio on smuggling charges, told authorities he was delivering what he thought was a sold vehicle from Schaller, Iowa, to Brownsville, Texas, and that he didn’t know what was inside, according to the complaint. He said he was given no deadline or address to deliver the truck.
Other guides take migrants across Mexico by bus. Others join them on a raft across the Rio Grande or through the desert to a hideout or to a nearby house where they may wait days or weeks. Eventually smuggling organizations get them to major cities like Phoenix, Houston or San Antonio.
“I have to imagine that their winning percentage is really, really high,” said Adam Isacson of the Wash- ington Of ce on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group. “Whatever reputation they lose from epi- sodes like this, their pro t margins are still high enough to make it work. Otherwise people wouldn’t pay.”
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Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the sto- ries that will be talked about today:
1. BUOYED BY MCCAIN’S RETURN, GOP SET SENATE HEALTH BILL VOTE The 80-year-old Arizona Republican, undergoing treatment for brain cancer, will be back in Washington for the critical roll call on beginning debate on the legislation, but it remains an uphill
battle for Republicans.
2. KUSHNER READY FOR ROUND 2 Trump’s son-in-law and adviser will
return to Capitol Hill for a closed-door conversation with lawmakers on the House intelligence committee after denying collusion with Russia.
3. ISRAEL DISMANTLES METAL DETECTORS FROM DISPUTED JERU- SALEM SHRINE
Themoveisdesignedtodefusea crisiswiththeMuslimworld,including security ally Jordan, the custodian of the holy site.
4. AP: TRUMP MULLS FIRING SES- SIONS
By The Associated Press
Israeli police of cers dismantle metal detectors outside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, earlyTuesday,July25,2017.Israel’ssecuritycabinethas decidedtoremovemetaldetectorssetupattheentrance to a Jerusalem holy site which had angered Muslims. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
10 Things to Know for Today
The president referred to the attorney general, who recused himself from all matters related to the Rus- sia investigation, in a tweet as “beleaguered.”
5. WHY THE SMUGGLING INDUSTRY IS THRIVING
Traf ckers have responded to the surge in U.S. border enforcement since the 2001 terror attacks with a durable business model, backed by money and organizational muscle.
6. AP: US CHURCH GOES TO BRAZIL; INSTILLS FEAR, SPLITS FAMILIES