The recent sentencing of two men in Minnesota for their role in the deaths of an Indian family of four attempting to cross illegally into the United States from Canada is a stark reminder of the tangled roots of global human trafficking ~ where personal aspiration meets systemic failure, and profit is drawn from human desperation. This was not just a crime committed by traffickers; it was a tragedy born from a family’s dream. The Patel couple, both schoolteachers from Gujarat, were parents chasing what millions across the world desire ~ a better life for their children.

It is this aspiration that fuels a global migration crisis, and in the United States, it has primarily played out along the southern border. But as enforcement has tightened there, a quieter, colder, and deadlier route has emerged ~ across the vast and often underestimated northern border with Canada. The Patel family’s 2022 journey was harrowing. They........

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