Visa Waiver: The truth is that some bands of Romanians, traffickers who took them across the border to stole and begging, had come to corrupt judges in the USA

For years, the authorities in Romania have issued and then judged the cases of bands that committed human trafficking on the Mexico – US, falsified cards and brought the money to Romania. This is also a real story, part of Visa Waiver, even if we are uncomfortable to hear it.

The first Saturday reaction of the US Embassy in Bucharest says a lot. After the decision to withdraw Romania from the Visa Waiver program, where I had been accepted the 43rd country, the diplomatic representation offered on X a quote.

Two days before the election

“We are strongly determined to end the illegal immigration and to strengthen the security of the borders of America,” the statement of Secretary of Marco Rubio, quoted by the embassy, ​​sounds. Rubio Na declared this now, related to Romania, but unfortunately, it fits the concrete situation.

Technically, we have met the small rejection norm, for the US to raise the visas of the Romanians. Was the process carried out with the Biden administration, as a political support? Yes. Does Trump's refusal have a political component, this time, this time? Obviously yes. Proof that the official announcement comes two days before the elections, and the blow is dizzy.

However, beyond the reaction in Washington, our part of responsibility is worth assumed.

The visas that remain for the US limits us, but what affects our life is the criminality here, from Romania, and which has connections, daily, with what Romanian clans do in the USA.

It is generally not known that thousands of Romanians are caught on the Mexico – USA border

The Romanian gangs of traffickers have become, for at least 10 years, increasingly powerful in Mexico and southern United States, areas where they act with predilection. A statistics made by Homeland Security in 2019 showed that 4,190 Romanian citizens had been caught, in five years, on the Mexico -Sua border. It's just the statistics of the discovered, from a much larger number that had tried. Many had succeeded.

Most of the Romanians detained for the illegal crossing of the US border were not people to act on their own. They are women, men and children tracked, many of them vulnerable. They were transported by the clans, especially by the criminal networks with roots in the Craiova area, in Mexico and then in the US.

In 2019, when we documented with colleagues from Freedom, I discovered that the Romanian migrants caught illegally cross the US border were twice as many as the Cubans.

This did not happen because women with three children from the villages of Oltenia bought tickets on the Bucharest – Mexico City route and then found the tunnels to the US, but because there were networks housed by force and justice institutions.

$ 250,000 from US in a package

In the files of the Romanian justice there are incredible situations. The US clan chiefs sent a lot of money to Romania. DIICOT captured at one point, in a single transport, $ 250,000 sent by the Romanian bands in the US. In a single transport.

Then the traffickers were released here. Their processes were dragging, despite the evidence sometimes sent by the FBI. They received suspended punishments and took it to the end.

In fact, human trafficking frequently appeared in the reports of the US State Department of Romania. Our authorities knew very well what was going on. The exploitation of Romanian citizens by Romanian citizens continues.

“It is believed that people trafficked in the United States by these networks are obliged to pay their debts by committing crimes and paying the money to the high-ranking members of the criminal group,” writes in a report of the US Border Patrol, the US Border Police.

The case of the judge in San Diego

Closely related to human trafficking, there were groups dealing with computer frauds, card forgery and ATM breaking. When the tracted ones were sent to begging and stolen, especially in Arizona, Los Angeles and other areas of California, some of them received forged cards.

The heads of clans coming from Romania had become so rich, strong and well connected that their networks worked with other influential bands in the US. A stenogram in the file of the Sărdaru network shows how the traffickers were discussing a judge in San Diego, “where there is a need for intervention”. They nominated him because the judge was accessible through a trafficker of Mexican origin. All this appeared in a file in Romania.

The Romanian clans in the US needed a local instance that did not necessarily give asylum to the traffin, but to temporarily release those caught on the border. Subsequently, the illegal migrants disappeared and were sent to the US area where they had been assigned by the clans. They were judged in freedom, but they never appeared, unless they were caught.

The method is one of those targeted by the Trump administration, which no longer wants, being strongly encouraged by the American public, to judge the cases of the migrants caught that they have illegally crossed the US border.

The criminality in the US has effects in Romania. The relatives of those traced in the US are pressed, blackmailed or, in some cases, beaten here, in Romania, to pay the outstanding debts.

In their turn, the black money entered Romania strengthens the domestic crime and also put pressure on justice. And this goes beyond the stake Visa Waiver.