Smugglers on the Border
Reflections from Yuma, San Diego, and Mexicali
By John Wahala on May 1, 2023
Migrants arriving in Yuma
Migrants arriving in Yuma. Photo by John Wahala.
A strange and destructive thing is happening at the border. The federal government is quietly abetting human smuggling, setting off an unprecedented wave of migration.
In just over two years, the Biden administration has released more than two million illegal aliens into the United States. Another 1.3 million have entered by evading the Border Patrol. Millions more are en route. Nearly all are exploited by the cartels, which control the smuggling routes and have grown large and powerful enough to challenge governments. Some of the migrants are trafficked, assaulted, abandoned, even tortured to death. It is a deepening crisis with serious social, economic, fiscal, and political implications. But first it is a humanitarian disaster, enabled by a federal government whose primary task is to prevent such things.
The Center has extensively covered this ongoing crisis, explaining in great detail the decisions made by the administration that triggered the record surge in migration and its subsequent reactions to the surge that have made the situation worse.
https://cis.org/Wahala/Smugglers-Border
