Biden administration launches effort to target, sanction migrant smugglers

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new effort to sanction transnational organizations that help smuggle migrants across the southern border, as it scrambles to solve a migrant crisis that has overwhelmed authorities there.

"We aim to cut off access to that profit by denying these criminal organizations the ability to engage in travel, trade and finance within the U.S," he said Tuesday on a call with reporters. "We intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these organizations use to succeed." The effort -- which will involve Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the State Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- will work to identify smugglers and associations and take actions including the revocation of travel documents, suspension and disbarment of trade entities, and the freezing of financial and banking assets.