KTRH Local Houston and Texas News

KTRH Local Houston and Texas News

KTRH-AM covering local news from Houston and across Texas.

 

Smuggler's Dues: Cartels Cashing In at the Border

While the Biden border crisis is costing American taxpayers billions, it's doing just the opposite for Mexican drug cartels. The criminal cartels that once thrived on the drug trade are now finding the human trade just as lucrative, thanks to the millions of foreigners rushing to take advantage of Biden's open border policy. "More than five million people have crossed through their territory, and have been charged anywhere from $2,500 per head, to as much as 9, 10, 11, or $12,000 a head," says Todd Bensman, senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. "In fact, some reports now have the cartels making more money from human smuggling for the first time, than from drug trafficking."

Whether from drugs or humans, the cartels are raking it in like never before. A new report estimates they're now bringing in $13 billion per year---up from $500 million per year in 2018. Bensman explains that all of this growing money and power flowing to criminal cartels is dangerous to the U.S. and the world. "If they continue amassing this kind of funding, they would eventually be able to completely dominate the Mexican military---meaning the central government of Mexico would be rendered subordinate (to the cartels)," he tells KTRH. "And that is where the rubber really meets the road."

Stopping or reversing this dangerous trajectory is unlikely as long as Biden remains in office, according to Bensman. "I don't see this changing much, even if Republicans take control of both chambers of Congress," says Bensman. "Because ultimately the puppet strings on that issue lead directly to the White House, and the appointments made to DHS."

To that end, several Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have vowed to pursue impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas if they take control of Congress in the midterm elections.

"Unfortunately, I think (the administration) is going to have that border open for as long as they can, to get as many people in as humanly possible for the next two years, at least," says Bensman.


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