The 'unbelievable vehicles' used to smuggle immigrants are mostly factory-issue sedans
By Philip Bump
January 10 at 10:45 AM
According to President Trump, every day on the border between the U.S. and Mexico is a small slice of “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
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One thing we do know, though, is what sorts of vehicles have been impounded by Customs and Border Protection. There are, as of writing, nearly 570 vehicles which have been seized by CBP and for which the agency has issued notices or forfeiture. You can see all of them, down to their VINs, at the moderately dystopian site forfeiture.gov.
The bulk of these vehicles were seized at the border after violations of two laws: 8 USC 1324, which addresses attempts to illegally harbor migrants, and 19 USC 1595, which deals with smuggling. Some were seized by CBP elsewhere in the country, like the 2009 Volkswagen Passat seized at the Philadelphia airport on drug-related charges.
So how Mad-Maxian are these vehicles? Well, not very. Among the vehicles seized by CBP are more than 200 different makes and models, spanning a half-century of production, from a 1966 Chevrolet C20 pickup truck seized in El Paso (smuggling) to a 2019 tractor-trailer seized at a Border Patrol station near Laredo. The most popular model year? 2004.
That 2019 tractor-trailer was, by far, the most valuable one seized, with an estimated value of $143,000. In total, the government estimates that the vehicles it seized are worth about $2.8 million. (The least valuable, setting aside a Nissan Altima estimated as being worth a dollar, was a 2000 Toyota Solara seized at Otay Mesa, which the government figures is worth 50 bucks.) The median value of the seized vehicles is $2,500.
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more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/10/unbelievable-vehicles-used-smuggle-immigrants-are-mostly-factory-issue-sedans/?utm_term=.50184d2895cb
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