Mexican Cartels Controlling Southern Border Endangering Americans, Official Says

Mexican cartels now pose more of a threat to Americans as they smuggle violent criminals hidden among illegal migrants. Even as the U.S. and Mexican governments continue to fight the smuggling of dangerous narcotics into country, these drug cartels have also taken advantage of the lax border policies of the Biden Administration. Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said this was no longer a political discussion but rather an issue of national security.

According to Fox News, Lines stressed that the situation on the border needed to change and that great effort must be put into taking it back from the control of the cartels. He further pointed out how these cartels have profited through their trafficking operations and emphasized that the situation will worsen over time if nothing is done.

Lines remarked that cartels have utilized the U.S. migrant crisis to their advantage by establishing effective and lucrative smuggling operations to slip through Border Patrol officials. He added that migrants that cannot pay now have cartels helping them cross the border where they offer themselves to smuggle illegal drugs into the country in exchange for passage into the U.S.

A professor at George Mason University said cartels charge migrants wanting to cross the border at the cheapest price of $4,000. One migrant reportedly coughed up $20,000 from a loan to smuggle his two children into the U.S. They were later found dead along with 51 other individuals at the back of an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio. Those who manage to cross are forced by the cartel to work off their debts.

"Not everybody is able to pay for it, and they come as indentured servants," Lines told Fox News.

Just last year, almost 100 suspected terrorists were arrested on the southern border according to Customs and Border Protection. Whereas the previous five years only saw about 26 arrests in total. Homeland Security investigators said that human smuggling operations’ profits have gone through the roof with a whopping estimated profit of $13 billion as of July. The CBP said that around 15,000 pounds of fentanyl were seized along the border in 2022, which was a 206% increase from 2020.