Mexican drug cartels are believed to be taking advantage of migrants and sending them to the southern United States border to distract officials from their smuggling operations.
The asylum seekers are allegedly being sent deliberately to hand themselves over to Border Patrol officers in various US border towns in the thousands. Law enforcement officials alleged this was an effort to allow the cartels to carry on their drug and human smuggling operations undisturbed in less populated areas.
Mexican Drug Cartels Using Migrants
There was a migrant group of roughly 2,200 people who turned themselves over to officers in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday. Video footage showed migrants lined up in blocks, waiting to be processed by Border Patrol.
Roughly 500 miles away, in the westernmost tip of the state, El Paso has also seen a surge in the number of migrants in the last week. Sources said that on Thursday alone, some 1,700 migrants were encountered in 24 hours, as per the New York Post.
Since then, multiple groups of migrants in the hundreds have lined up along the border wall to surrender themselves to officers and claim asylum in the United States. The situation is allegedly fueled by cartel lies, including the Biden administration's CBP One app to schedule immigration appointments.
One source said that the drug cartels were circulating false information that anyone waiting for a CBP One appointment could turn themselves in and seek asylum in the US. On Monday, up to 500 mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers lined up at El Paso, waiting to cross into the US.
Many single adults and families crossed the border illegally but hope to stay in the US while their asylum cases are heard. However, this is a process that usually takes several years to complete.
Overwhelming the Southern Border
Additionally, the American government allegedly knew about weapon trafficking for several years, based on US intelligence documents and interviews with half a dozen current and former officials. However, sources said that there was little done to stop the trafficking networks inside the United States, according to CBS News.
These networks are supposedly responsible for moving up to a million firearms across the border yearly, including belt-fed miniguns and grenade launchers. Dozens of cartel gunrunning networks, which operate like terrorist cells, pay Americans to buy weapons from gun stores and online dealers nationwide.
Then, the firearms are shipped across the southwest border through brokers and couriers. The US government has also spent the last five decades waging an unsuccessful war on drug traffickers who are now believed to be fueling a deadly fentanyl epidemic.
The situation comes as Mexico is considered the top source of migrants trying to cross the US border illegally. There have been nearly half a million US Border Patrol encounters along the southern border this fiscal year alone, said Dallas News.
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