Human smuggling trial of Florida men begins after Indian family's freezing death near Canada border

By Michael Goldberg
Updated  November 18, 2024 10:15pm EST
Associated Press
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The Brief

    • A federal trial is set to begin Monday for two men who are facing charges of human smuggling after a family of four from India froze to death in 2022 at the U.S.-Canada border.
    • Steve Shand and Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel are accused of being a part of a human smuggling operation linked to a growing number of undocumented Indians living in the U.S.
    • Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) - Nearly three years after a couple from India and their two young children froze to death while trying to cross the border from Canada into the U.S., two Central Florida men will face trial on human smuggling charges, accused of being part of a criminal network that stretched around the world.

Prosecutors say Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, ran part of the scheme and recruited Steve Shand, 50, of Florida, to shuttle migrants across the border. Both men have pleaded not guilty in federal court in Minnesota. They will stand trial before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, with proceedings expected to last about five days.

On Jan. 19, 2022, Shand was allegedly waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the family of four from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state. Prosecutors say 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; the couple’s 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, died after spending hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions as the wind chill reached minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius).

Prosecutors say when Jagdish Patel’s body was found, he was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.

Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel. Federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the U.S., mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.

The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates more than 725,000 Indians were living illegally in the U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.

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Harshkumar Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press that his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself and now "stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime. He has faith in the justice system of his adopted country and believes that the truth will come out at the trial." Attorneys for Shand did not return messages.

Court documents filed by prosecutors show Patel was in the U.S. illegally after being refused a U.S. visa at least five times, and that he recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was "cold as hell" while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say.

"They going to be alive when they get here?" he allegedly wrote.

During the last trip in January, Shand had messaged Patel, saying: "Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please," according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.

Jagdish Patel grew up in Dingucha. He and his family lived with his parents. The couple were schoolteachers, according to local news reports.

Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of them Gujaratis. He said smugglers and shady business interests promised many migrants an American dream that doesn’t exist when they arrive.

"The promises of the almighty dollar lead many people to take unwarranted risks with their own dignity, and as we’re finding out here, their own lives," Chaudhary said.

Dreams of leaving India

The narrow streets of Dingucha, a quiet village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, are spattered with ads for moving overseas.

"Make your dream of going abroad come true," one poster says, listing three tantalizing destinations: "Canada. Australia. USA."

This is where the family’s deadly journey began.

Jagdish Patel, 39, grew up in Dingucha. He and his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, lived with his parents, raising their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and Dharmik. (Patel is a common Indian surname, and they are unrelated to Harshkumar Patel.) The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports say.

The family was fairly well off by local standards, living in a well-kept, two-story house with a front patio and a wide veranda.

"It wasn’t a lavish life," said Vaibhav Jha, a local reporter who spent days in the village. "But there was no urgent need, no desperation."

Experts say illegal immigration from India is driven by everything from political repression to a dysfunctional American immigration system that can take years, if not decades, to navigate legally.

But much is rooted in economics, and how even low-wage jobs in the West can ignite hopes for a better life.

Those hopes have changed Dingucha.

Today, so many villagers have gone overseas — legally and otherwise — that blocks of homes stand vacant, and the social media feeds of those who remain are filled with old neighbors showing off houses and cars.

That drives even more people to leave.

"There was so much pressure in the village, where people grew up aspiring to the good life," Jha said.

Smuggling networks were glad to help, charging fees that could reach $90,000 per person. In Dingucha, Jha said, many families afforded that by selling farmland.

Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of them Gujaratis.

Smugglers with ties to the Gujarati business community have built an underground network, he said, bringing in workers willing to do low- or even no-wage jobs.

"Their own community has taken advantage of them," Chaudhary said.

The pipeline of illegal immigration from India has long existed but has increased sharply along the U.S.-Canada border. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30, which amounted to 60% of all arrests along that border and more than 10 times the number two years ago.

By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates there were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in the U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.

In India, investigating officer Dilip Thakor said media attention had led to the arrest of three men in the Patel case, but hundreds of such cases don’t even reach the courts.

With so many Indians trying to get to the U.S., the smuggling networks see no need to warn off customers.

They "tell people that it’s very easy to cross into the U.S. They never tell them of the dangers involved," Thakor said.

U.S. prosecutors allege Patel and Shand were part of a sprawling operation, with people to scout for business in India, acquire Canadian student visas, arrange transportation and smuggle migrants into the U.S., mostly via Washington state or Minnesota.

On Monday, at the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, Patel, 29, and Shand, 50, will each face four counts related to human smuggling.

Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life and "now stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime."

Shand’s attorneys did not return calls seeking comment. Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.

His final passengers, though, never made it.

The last night

By 3 a.m. on Jan. 19, 2022, the 11 Indian migrants had spent hours wandering in gusting snow and brutal cold trying to find Shand. Many were in jeans and rubber work boots. None wore serious winter clothing.

Shand, though, was stuck. Prosecutors allege he had been heading to the pickup spot in a rented 15-passenger van when he drove into a ditch roughly a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) from the border.

Eventually, two migrants stumbled across the van. Sometime later, a passing pipeline company worker pulled the vehicle from the ditch.

Soon after that, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, on watch for migrants after boot prints were found near the border, pulled over Shand.

Shand repeatedly insisted there was no one else outside, even as five more desperate Indians wandered to the vehicle from the fields, including one going in and out of consciousness.

They had been walking for more than 11 hours.

There were no children among the migrants, but one man had a backpack filled with toys, children’s clothes and diapers. He said a family of four Indians asked him to hold it, because they had to carry their young son.

Sometime in the night they had become separated.

Hours later, the Patels’ bodies were found just inside Canada, in a field near where the migrants had crossed into the U.S.

Jagdish was holding Dharmik, with daughter Vihangi nearby. Vaishaliben was a short walk away.

Hemant Shah, an Indian-born businessman living in Winnipeg, some 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of where the migrants were found, helped organize a virtual prayer service for the Patels.

He’s accustomed to hard winters and can’t fathom the suffering they endured.

"How could these people have even thought about going and crossing the border?" Shah said.

Greed, he said, had taken four lives: "There was no humanity."

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