‘Pseudo-Legitimate’ Travel Agencies in Senegal Offering ‘Complete Packages’ to Get Migrants to US Border

“Pseudo-legitimate” travel agencies are emerging in Senegal and offering migrants a “complete package” to get to the United States‘ southern border, where millions have tried to get into the U.S. illegally, officials said this week.

A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official told Fox News that the agencies are emerging in cities like Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and offer free travel to Europe to Senegalese nationals.

Those agencies offer visa-free travel to Europe, which then allows them to move from there to the Western Hemisphere, where they can travel to the U.S. and either try to get in at a port of entry using the CBP One app – where 1,600 are let in each day – or enter illegally between ports of entry in hope of being released into the U.S. with a court date in the distant future.

“They sell complete packages to connect them to a smuggling organization that will then facilitate their movement up to the border,” the official said.

CBP said it is working with partners throughout the hemisphere and across the globe to make sure they are encouraging people’s ability to access protections, while also taking action to prevent those seeking to exploit different travel mechanisms.

The Senegalese travel agencies offer a glimpse of the global nature of the migrant crisis and how migrants from across the globe are being pulled to the U.S.-Mexico border. Beyond countries in the Western Hemisphere, U.S authorities have encountered migrants from over 150 countries coming to the border hoping to be processed and released into the interior.