Human Smuggler Testifies He Brought 500 Indian Migrants Across U.S.-Canada Border in Four Years

An Indian migrant testified that he smuggled more than 500 other India nationals across the U.S.-Canada border during a four-year period. Despite making more than $400,000 in his role in the smuggling operation, the man will be allowed to remain and work in the U.S. in exchange for his testimony.

Rajinder Singh, 51, testified that he participated in a human smuggling scheme that brought more than 500 Indian migrants across the U.S. northern border, the Associated Press reported. Singh said the migrants paid up to $100,000 each for movement along the smuggling trail leading from the Gujarat state in India to the Canadian border with the U.S.

Singh was previously convicted for his role in the human smuggling network and took the stand last week in Minnesota to testify against the alleged leaders of the network, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida, the AP stated. Prosecutors say Patel ran part of the smuggling operation and recruited Shand to drive groups of migrants across the Canadian border into Minnesota furin a four-week span.

Singh himself entered the United States illegally three times after being deported on federal charges, the AP stated. He says he is testifying because it is the right thing to do.

Patel’s attorney question questioned Singh’s virtue and said he is testifying in order to avoid yet another deportation. The AP says Signh’s deportation will be deferred and he will be provided with a work permit.

The India migrants would travel to Canada on student visas and would then be smuggled from British Columbia into Washington state. In 2021, the plans changed to cross the migrants into Minnesota instead.

This allegedly led to the deaths of four Indian migrants who froze to death in January 2022, the AP stated. The victims were listed as: 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik.

Singh testified that he received a panic-stricken call from one of his smuggling associates who said, “Our work got screwed up. People got caught.” Singh said he later learned of the deaths of the Indian family.

“They are playing with people’s lives,” Singh said of the smugglers. “People died,” the AP stated.