US announces sanctions on Mexican migrant-trafficking gang

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States Treasury has announced sanctions on a Mexico-based migrant-trafficking gang that supplied asylum seekers with false papers to game the process. Known as the Hernandez Salas organization, the gang is based in the border city of Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, California. Since at least 2018, the gang organized travel by migrants from “countries posing national security concerns,” according to the Treasury Department. The gang then smuggled them into United States. The department said the practice “undermines the U.S. asylum system” and hurts those who really need asylum protection.