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Show Stern Fight on Alien Smuggling U. S. Officials to Open Intensive In-tensive Campaign on Human Bootlegging. Washington. An Intensive campaign to combat the bootlegging of aliens, lately grown into a highly organized and lucrative business, Is soon to be undertaken by the immigration service. serv-ice. With a special appropriation of $1,200,000 provided for the purpose, hundreds of new patrol stations are to be opened along; the Canadian and Mexican borders, while the immigration immigra-tion forces in those districts are to be greatly Increased. At the same time It Is probable that the State department depart-ment will enter into treaty negotiations negotia-tions with Canada, Cuba and Mexico with a view to making life more difli-cult difli-cult for Immigrant smugglers. Although the smuggling of orientals Into the United States has always been carried on with more or less energy, It was not until the quota limit net went Into effect that the smuggling of all nationalities began on a large scale. Since then, It Is estimated, about 2i.V 000 aliens have been bootlegged each year. Without adequate funds or forces the Immigration service has been virtually powerless to cheek the practice. Hauled by fishing smacks from Cuba to Florida, by motor from Canada to New Tork state, and by all conceivable means, Including airplanes, from Mexico to the Southwestern states, groups of undeclared Immigrants Immi-grants are constantly gaining Illegal entry. ' North Border the Best. ' The Canadian border, while requiring requir-ing vigilant watching, presents the fewest difficulties. This Is partly be-' be-' cause Canada has practically the same Immigration restrictions as the Cnited .States, and partly because Canada offers of-fers greater Inducements to Immigrants Immi-grants than does this country. The smuggling of aliens from Cuba to Florida, moreover, has been curtailed to some extent by the alertness of the const guard service and the Florida Immigration Im-migration police. Hut the Mexican border, bor-der, with Its long stretch of dense wilderness wil-derness offering excellent cover for smuggling activities. Is an extremely ferlous problem. Here the bootlegging of aliens has become an extensive Industry. In-dustry. There Is now and has been for years, the Immigration service says, a bund of criminals on this border known as "coyotes," who live by preying upon persons wishing to secure an easy entrance en-trance Into the t'nited States. The "coyote" Is extremely dang'-rons to deal with. He goes "armed to the teeth" and does not hesitate to (Ire upon officers at sight. As be works In i a district where there are thousands of miles of winding, twisting river front, traversing for the most part a lonely, almost uninhabited country covered cov-ered with dense brush, the advantages are all on his side. When the Immigration officers attempt at-tempt to penetrate this territory In search of contraband aliens they take their lives Into their hands. Many have already been killed and those who remain nlive are protected more by luck than by anything else, as they are constantly being P.red upon. The "coyotes'" are especially reckless because be-cause they know that If they kill an officer or two they can make their escape es-cape back Into Mexico In comparative comfort, for once they get a start of ten feet Into the dense brush they are virtually lost to their pursuers. Higher Type Appears. In addition to the "coyote" band, however, a higher type of criminals has recently appeared on the Mexican border, attracted evidently by the large financial rewards In the Immigrant smuggling game. Under the skillful direction of this keener brain there has grown up a far-reaching organirgitlnn that "takes the alien from his home In Europe; secures a pas-port for him (a fraudulent ore. If necessary) ; purchases pur-chases lis steamship passage to Mexico; Mexi-co; places him on a ship; arranges for his entry ln:o Mexico at Vera Cruz or Tampico; conducts hhn north to the Ii.br Cranio nnd delivers him Into the I Fnited States all for a fixed price. These smugglers, unlike the border "coyotes," take an Interest In the welfare wel-fare of the contraband aliens and give them every possible advice as to what course they should pursue upon reaching reach-ing tills country, (me of their prac. tlces Is to de-troy any false passports as well as any documentary evidence that might Involve any one criminally or show that the aliens thciu.-ehcs were ever In Mexico,. The aliens falling Into the clutches of these smugglers are of two types those who are Inadmissible to this country for various reasons and those who are deceived Into believing themselves them-selves Inadmissible. The former t i Includes not only the diseased and feeble-minded, but anarc hists and criminals crim-inals who have been unable to obtain visas from American consuls to enable thorn to secure steam-hip passage. The latter are simply the Ignorant, who are Imposed up n by dishonest ngenis In Kun-pe receiving a commission for the sale of steamship tickets: to Mexico. These men depict Mexico as n magical country, where food and gold are plentiful, plen-tiful, with a convenient land boundary easily crossed by Immigrants desiring to reach the lulled Slates. The pro vldlrig of fraudulent passports Is also undertaken by these agents for an additional ad-ditional fee. They Are Inadmissible. Cpon their arrival in Mexico the deluded de-luded aliens at once become Inadmissible Inadmis-sible to the United States over the land boundary, under n special proviso of the immigration law, whereas if they had applied In u regular manner at a seaport they would probably have had no difficulty. The fees extorted from Immigrants of both types have In some cases been as high as $1,500. In the old days before the war, when Chinese smuggling was the chief nuisance nui-sance along the border, the government govern-ment forces were almost, if not wholly, equal to the situation. There were river guards to catch the aliens and smugglers in the act of illegal entry; mounted men to pursue them, If they succeeded in stealing over the border; men tp open nnd inspect freight cars Just before they left the border towns, and men to Inspect the passenger trains. All these, says thh Immigration service, serv-ice, constituted thb first line of defense. de-fense. The second lh.e of defense consisted con-sisted of inspectors at strategical interior in-terior points on all railroads running north from the border, where another opening of freight cars and a thorougt Inspection of both passenger nnd freight trains occurred. The olllcers nt these points likewise covered the highways high-ways for Chinese traveling afoot, by wagons or in automobile. Later, It was found that smugglers escorting aliens from the border unloaded them from trains both passenger nnd freight and detoured them around the Inspection Inspec-tion points. So third and fourth lines of defense had to be established at points even farther removed from the border. With this complicated network of defenses, very few contraband Chinese as compared with the large numbers of Kuropean aliens succeeded In eluding elud-ing capture. Through Its elliciency the bootlegging of orientals was cut to an Irreducible minimum. Hut the same force has not been equal to the task of checking the rapid rise of a new Immigrant Immi-grant smuggling boom. Work Is Doubled. New Inspectors have been stationed at the ports of entry, It Is true, but Inasmuch In-asmuch as the requirements of the present Immigration laws have more than doubled the work of Inspecting, tills has not greatly facilitated matters. mat-ters. In fact, the force has been so Inadequate during the last two years that during rush periods thousands of Mexican Immigrants have been compelled com-pelled to wait for Inspection, sometimes some-times for weeks while their food nnd money steadily dwindled. In the circumstances, cir-cumstances, It Is not surprising that some of them should become Impatient anil set k to cross the border by stealth. Meantime, moreover, the dangers have greatly Increased for the mount-ed mount-ed guard, still pitifully few in numbers. In-tead of working In groups of four or five, tliey are compelled to work In pairs, even while en the trail of i i whole band of "coyotes." Consequent! j ly. Disunities have been frequent and , serious, while the business of smug j gling bus steadily grown. Thus, thtf , new additions to the defense of tl a j border, planned by the Immigration j service, will be more than reinforce ti'.'nts. They will be In the nature ol a re-cue. |