A recent caravan of migrants that arrived in El Paso, Texas, Dec. 11 highlighted debates surrounding United States border policy and issues along the Texas-Mexico border.
The group of approximately 1,000 migrants, mostly comprised of Nicaraguans, is one of the larger caravans in recent years, according to the New York Times. Most of the group's members turned themselves into processing, and as of Dec.12, over 5,000 migrants were reported in the U.S. Border Patrol's El Paso central processing center. In October alone, 50,000 migrants were reported to have crossed the El Paso border from South and Central America.
In recent weeks, Texas Department of Public Safety special agents in Laredo discovered 50 migrants, including seven minors, hidden in a conex container. Thirteen migrants, including two minors, were also found after a high-speed chase in Arizona.
Human trafficking incidents at the border have increased, according to the Cannon. In October 2020, there were 71,929 reported incidents, which more than doubled to 164,837 in October 2021, and grew to 230,678 in October 2022. In addition, 60% of all fentanyl seized in the United States was reported at the Mexican border. Rio Grande Valley's Border Patrol sector made the largest liquid fentanyl seizure in history, approximately three gallons, Dec. 2.
"The migrant-smuggling economy along the southern border now tops $20 billion, and that doesn’t even account for how much cartels profit from drug trafficking with the high increase in border crossings," Selene Rodriguez, assistant director of Federal Affairs at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, stated in a Dec. 6 article featured by the Cannon. "Mexican migrants now pay an average of $8,600 per person to be smuggled into the U.S. Those from outside of Mexico pay even more, sometimes up to $50,000 for those from China."
It’s no secret that Mexican cartels are in charge of the southern border, Rodriguez wrote.
"Human smuggling into the U.S. is at an all-time high, and the victims are people of every age, race, and color,” Rodriguez stated.
In November, Project Veritas released a documentary outlining how the Department of Health and Human Services has spent tax dollars to 'put children in the hands of criminals.'
Tara Lee Rodas, Council of the Inspectors General and Integrity and Efficiency, spoke to Project Veritas and revealed that migrant children sponsors are “typically not citizens” or “permanent residents.”
Rodas said those sponsors often “don’t have a legal presence.'"