$72,000 migrant smuggling routes to the US start with charter flights

Record border crossings are a major issue in November’s US presidential election, with more migrants coming from around the world. Inside two new routes that take Indians and Africans via Central America. By MICA ROSENBERG, RUPAM JAIN and JACKIE BOTTS, Reuters CHURCHILL NDONWIE and JOSE MARIA DEL PINO, Columbia Journalism Investigations Filed: June 21, 2024, 10 a.m. GMT When a Legend Airlines Airbus A 340 landed at San Salvador airport on July 15 after an 18-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates, its crew quickly realized something was wrong. Salvadoran officials refused to connect the jet bridge to allow the roughly 300 passengers, all Indian nationals, to disembark, according to three former crew members on the flight who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. Several passengers told the cabin crew they planned to travel onward to Mexico and cross the border there illegally into the U.S., one crew member said. Others said they were going on vacation to the Mexican border ci

Record border crossings are a major issue in November’s US presidential election, with more migrants coming from around the world. Inside two new routes that take Indians and Africans via Central America. By MICA ROSENBERG, RUPAM JAIN and JACKIE BOTTS, Reuters CHURCHILL NDONWIE and JOSE MARIA DEL PINO, Columbia Journalism Investigations Filed: June 21, 2024, 10 a.m. GMT When a Legend Airlines Airbus A 340 landed at San Salvador airport on July 15 after an 18-hour flight from the United Arab Emirates, its crew quickly realized something was wrong. Salvadoran officials refused to connect the jet