We Won't Be Safe from Cartels Until Holes in the Border are Closed
Some of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world maintain bases of operation at our southern border. The Mexican cartels use fear and violence to control their territories and ensure there will not be any disruption in their criminal activities. They will do whatever is required to protect their most lucrative enterprises, including human smuggling.
Cartel Violence
A recent study of the world’s murder rates revealed seven cities in Mexico are among the top ten for highest rates of homicidal violence. The cartels will target anyone who might have the ability to interfere with their operations: political candidates, police officers, journalists — no one is off limits.
There were 476 recorded attacks or threats against Mexican politicians and political candidates during Mexico’s recent nine-month election cycle, including 79 homicides and 25 kidnappings. One mayoral candidate has gone missing. He now joins the list of more than 70,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico, 40% of whom went missing during the past two-and-a-half years. Sometimes these missing people are eventually found when mass graves are uncovered.
Entire families have been slaughtered by the cartels.
And cartel violence does not always stay in Mexico. They come into the United States to do their dirty work, too. Imagine the hit Netflix show Ozarks but in real life.
When I was prosecuting cartel members for the Department of Justice, it was commonplace to learn that one of the targets of my investigation had been murdered or gone missing . . . or that they were the murderer. For example, a double homicide in Lexington, Kentucky traced back to a cartel member I was targeting. I simultaneously investigated the Sinaloa Cartel and the Beltran Leyva Organization, and there were constantly violent acts being perpetrated by both groups.
Human Smuggling
Cartels have grown increasingly more powerful over the years because they have a steady source of income from smuggling humans across the border. It is virtually impossible to cross the border illegally without first paying the cartel that controls the plaza. I once heard a story about a Guatemalan who tried to cross without paying, and the cartel hunted him down in the Arizona desert and killed him. Stories like this get spread by smugglers in order to send a message so that individuals do not try to cross without paying the cartels.
The going rate to be smuggled into the United States from Mexico is around $4,000. To get to the United States from the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) costs around $14,000. To come across the ocean from a country like China, an immigrant will pay $50,000 or more.
So far in 2021, over 120,000 people have been apprehended by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who came to the United States from countries other than Mexico and the Northern Triangle. In fact, over 160 different countries were represented. That amounts to more than 17% of total Border Patrol apprehensions, and the number is trending up.
That means a lot of immigrants are paying top dollar to smuggling organizations this year.
And every smuggling network knows it cannot move people across the United States-Mexico border unless it firsts pays the cartel. The cartel’s tax may vary from plaza to plaza, but it is around $2,000. CBP has estimated that human smuggling results in over $3 billion of profit for the cartels each year.
Security Threat
Putting money in the pockets of the cartels directly impacts the power and influence they have to terrorize the people in Mexico and, increasingly, to do harm in the United States. They use their human smuggling profits to buy firearms and heavy artillery and have it smuggled into Mexico. They have military-grade weapons and armored vehicles. They mount machine guns in truck beds. They are armed and ready to defend their operations.
And there is another very real security risk that exists when floods of immigrants come across the border — the likelihood that bad actors can hide in the crowd. This year, Yuma Sector Border Patrol has already apprehended 14 individuals from Iran who crossed the border illegally. Iran is designated a Special Interest Country due to the very real threat that it might send individuals to the United States to commit acts of terrorism. Meanwhile, two Yemeni adult males were apprehended near Calexico, California — one in January and one in March. Both men were on a United States terrorism watchlist and “no fly” list.
If an organization wanted to send terrorists to the United States without them being inspected by federal authorities, the southern border continues to be the best way for them to accomplish this.
Border Security Is National Security
We need to secure our nation’s border and stop the flow of immigrants coming into the country illegally. It’s a matter of national security.
Loosely enforced and inadequate immigration laws are an open invitation for immigrants to pay human smugglers to come to the United States. The cartels are being enriched because our country will not do what is necessary to stem the flow of illegal immigration. It’s time for Congress to close the loopholes.
Lacy Cooper was the Border Security Section Chief for the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. She served 15 years as both a county and federal prosecutor targeting violent offenders, gang members, cartels, and terrorists. She is now Of Counsel with the law firm of Schmitt Schneck Even & Williams. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.
