YUMA, Ariz. – The Mexican cartels that control the southern border endanger Americans as they traffic drugs and violent criminals into the US, a border city official told Fox News.
“This is not a political discussion,” Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines told Fox News. “This is a national security issue.”
“Unless this situation changes and we regain control of the cartels, for traffic coming across our border, it’s only going to get worse,” Lines said.
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The cartels have established effective and lucrative smuggling operations and are using the surge in immigrants to elude overwhelmed Border Patrol officials, according to Lines. Immigrants can pay cartels to help them cross the border, but if they can’t afford the cost, then they can traffic drugs or pay their debt instead of cash.
“There are a lot of people who don’t like the United States for whatever reason, and there are a lot of people who want to come in here and do some damage,” Alex Muller, a Yuma resident and farmer, told Fox News. “It’s like a time bomb.”
Nearly 100 known or suspected terrorists were arrested at the southern border last year, according to Customs and Border Protection. By comparison, over the previous five years, there had been a combined total of 26 arrests.
Meanwhile, profits from human smuggling operations have skyrocketed in recent years. According to Homeland Security Investigations, the industry seized $13 billion as of July, up from $500 million in 2018. And CBP seized 15,000 pounds of fentanyl along the southern border in 2022, a 206% increase from 2020.
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines says some immigrants are in debt to cartels for years after crossing the US-Mexico border.
(Fox News/Megan Myers)
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“You have all these cartels basically running this border, funneling people and drugs,” Yuma resident and fifth-generation farmer Hank Auza told Fox News. “That’s a lot of money and people.”
Encounters with migrants increased from 480,000 in 2020 to 2.3 million last year, according to CBP. In Yuma, there was a 171% increase in migrant crossings between 2021 and 2022.
“Everyone is coming across the border, and these are the people who want to get caught,” Muller told Fox News. “There are a lot of people who don’t want to get caught.”
“Where are they going and who supports them?” Muller continued. “That’s what’s scary.”
The border city of Yuma, Arizona experienced a 171% increase in migrant crossings between 2021 and 2022, and migrant encounters across the country are reaching record levels.
(Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
Cartel fees for immigrants trying to cross the border can range from $4,000 to $20,000, a George Mason University professor told The New York Times. A man obtained a $20,000 loan to smuggle his two children into the U.S. They were later found dead in the back of an abandoned tractor-trailer in San Antonio along with 51 other people.
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Many immigrants remain “in debt to the cartel” after crossing into the United States, Lines said. As a result, they are forced to work to pay off their debts.
“Not everyone can afford it, and they come as servants,” Lines told Fox News.
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Muller said the cartels took advantage of Biden’s border policies over the past two years.
“The border is not 100% secure,” he told Fox News. “It’s wide open.”
“It’s 100% dangerous what’s happening right now,” Muller said. “I’m sure it could be too late, as this has been the case for the last two and a half years.”
To hear more from Líneas on the control of Mexican cartels on the southern border, click here.
