FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – The trial of two men charged with smuggling people into the U.S. from Canada is getting underway in federal court.
Jury selection is set to begin.
Forty-nine-year-old Steve Shand and 28-year-old Harshkumar Patel are accused of helping take undocumented immigrants from Minnesota to Chicago. They were part of a broader scheme that allegedly took people from India to Canada using fake student visas. The scheme was discovered after four members of an Indian family died in 2022 while attempting to cross into Minnesota during a snowstorm.
