Did that get your attention?
I’m going to post two links one event in 2004 and the other in 2019
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Morecambe_Bay_cockling_disaster
The links tell the full stories. A network of criminals from China to Ireland and beyond involved in the sophisticated transportation of people. The European leg of the operation goes live once the containers are unloaded in Belgium or Holland.
Containers adapted with internal air conditioning systems to keep them alive.
Families raise loans to Chinese triad style operations to send a family member to the west.
The network earns thousands of dollars per person smuggled in 2 ways. Currency up front as a payment or a life in servitude. The Morecambe Bay Cocklers forced out the traditional British fishermen by introducing slave workers. The gang men bypassed the supply chain by dealing with the triad operations that run the high end restaurants that required the cockles ( shellfish).
Great discussion here. But what you've left out is the Great Lakes and all of those ports. Just look how corrupt those states and cities on the Great Lakes are!!