Law enforcement has remained silent about a Rhode Island school fundraiser to pay off “coyote” fees for an illegal immigrant student, a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter said on Newsmax Wednesday.

“This email circulated internally at this school in Providence, Rhode Island, and a number of concerned parents and teachers have come forward and you know that’s how we got it, because they were concerned that there’s an issue with safety at the school, given that possibly a student is there being held hostage by a smuggler,” investigative reporter Jennie Taer told Newsmax host Shaun Kraisman. (RELATED: ‘Told Us To Come’: Ahead Of President’s Visit, Illegal Immigrants Say They Crossed The Border Because Of Biden)

The email from the school’s assistant principal asked staff for help in raising $2,000 to pay off the remainder of a $5,000 fee an unidentified student owed a “coyote.” The Department of Homeland Security defines “coyotes” as smugglers who exploit migrants seeking to enter the United States.

“Parents are telling me that this is something that not only are they concerned about the curriculum in the schools, but now, it’s a matter of school safety with having students at schools who were smuggled into the United States,” Taer said. “And the school continues to deny that this email ever was sent out and that it’s real, however, the teachers’ union in Providence, Rhode Island, has verified it themselves, and I think it’s also particularly interesting that we’ve reached out to several law enforcement agencies, both federal and local, and not a single person has responded to us about this. It should be a law enforcement matter.”

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“If this really is a student that is under the ransom of a coyote, then there are all collateral consequences to that,” Nicole Solas, a fellow at the Education Freedom Center, told the DCNF Monday.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) encountered over 2.3 million migrants in fiscal year 2022, while another 600,000 migrants evaded CBP that fiscal year, Fox News reported. CBP reported encountering 230,000 people in October, the first month of fiscal year 2023, another 233,740 people in November and over 250,000 in December.

“I think that there was a little bit of ignorance presented in that email, because the wording, the description that they use to define what a coyote is, was ‘a group that helps people,’” Taer said. “We know that coyotes are typically individuals, some are linked to criminal organizations, often transnational criminal organizations, cartels, often in Mexico, that are smuggling people for profits and that’s how people get across the border and you really can’t cross without paying a coyote. And so, these are people that are often taken advantage of.”

“When you can’t pay your smuggler fee, you’re often held hostage in the United States, you may be trafficked, you may be sold for a number of nefarious and illegal activities and it’s extremely extremely dangerous and concerning and definitely a threat to national security,” Taer added.

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