A trial begins Monday in Minnesota focusing on a transnational human smuggling operation allegedly responsible for the deaths of a family of four who perished while attempting to cross the US-Canada border in January 2022, The Associated Press reports.
Federal prosecutors allege that an intricate network, spanning from India to Canada, profited from smuggling families seeking better lives in the United States.
At the center of the case are Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, a 29-year-old Indian national accused of orchestrating the scheme, and Steve Shand, a 50-year-old Florida resident charged with facilitating the border crossings. Prosecutors claim Patel recruited Shand at a Florida casino and paid him some $25,000 for five smuggling trips.
The tragedy involved the Patel family – Jagdish Patel (39), his wife Vaishaliben, their 11-year-old daughter Vihangi, and their 3-year-old son Dharmik – who died from hypothermia after being abandoned in blizzard conditions near the border. Jagdish Patel was found holding his son, wrapped in a blanket. The family, from the Indian state of Gujarat, reportedly spent hours wandering in sub-zero temperatures.
According to prosecutors, the smuggling operation involved recruiting clients in India, securing Canadian student visas for them, arranging transportation, and then smuggling them into the US primarily through Washington state or Minnesota. Court documents indicate that Patel himself was in the US illegally, having been denied a US visa at least five times. Text messages between Patel and Shand, presented in court filings, discuss the extreme cold encountered during the smuggling runs.
The incident highlights the dangers faced by migrants attempting irregular entry into the United States. The US Border Patrol reported over 14,000 apprehensions of Indian nationals along the Canadian border in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022. According to the Pew Research Center, an estimated 725,000 Indians were living illegally in the US in 2022.
Minneapolis immigration attorney Satveer Chaudhary, who has represented migrants exploited by unscrupulous businesses, commented on the allure of the “American dream” often falsely promised to migrants by smugglers and those profiting from their desperation. Both Patel and Shand have pleaded not guilty.
