Smugglers are always looking at policy changes in the U.S. and angling for ways to turn them to their advantage. The return-trip scam is the latest in a long line of tactics that allow smugglers to slip through holes in the nation’s defenses.
Border Patrol Agent Wesley Cornue told a federal court that Mr. Ayala probably pulled the trick at least six times over a month. Agents caught him on May 16 with a group of four people after they were alerted to the scam by two other migrants who said he had guided them into the country.
“I must credit the smuggler for his ingenuity in exploiting the highly naive American system of limitless, no-consequence turn-backs,” said Todd Bensman, a senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies who keeps a close eye on smuggling activities.