The Migrant Crisis Isn’t Just About Illegal Immigration, It’s Also About The Cartels That Run The Border

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki predictably lied about the border crisis on Tuesday, claiming the current surge of illegal immigration is "Something that began during and was exacerbated by the Trump administration." In fact, the surge began in January, after Biden took office on the heels of a presidential campaign that promised amnesty for illegal immigrants and looser border policies.

" The Border Crisis Is a Cartel Crisis But there's another dynamic to the border crisis that at least a few reporters aren't willing to ignore: the surge of fentanyl coming into the United States from Mexico, the rising chaos in border communities, and the breakdown of anti-cartel operations between the two countries.

Using the same infrastructure and distribution routes and networks they developed for marijuana and cocaine, these cartels reach over the border and deep into the U.S. interior.

The cartels control the flow of migrants and drugs into the United States because they control physical territory along the border and throughout much of northern Mexico.

No migrant can cross the border now without paying a smuggler, whose price includes a payoff, or tax, for the cartel that controls that region.

Often, cartel-associated smugglers will coordinate the crossing of large groups of unaccompanied migrant children and families to tie up Border Patrol while a few miles downriver they move adult migrants or drugs over the border undetected.

" Zooming out from the border itself, the larger geopolitical problem is that the United States and Mexico have all but ceased cooperating in the fight against the cartels.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/05/the-migrant-crisis-isnt-just-about-illegal-immigration-its-also-about-the-cartels-that-run-the-border/