Mexico Worried Biden’s Border Policies Invite Crime

Mexico’s left-wing government reportedly showed concern over President Joe Biden’s Border policies. The Democrat’s decisions are sparking a massive surge in illegal immigration going to the US. Moreover, the policies are reportedly creating business for the county's violent drug cartels.

RELATED: U.S. to let 25,000 asylum-seekers cross border to wait out immigration cases

According to government officials and reports, the Mexican government worries that the new administration's policies are encouraging illegal immigration. In turn, the demand to help successfully cross the border gives organized crime a new line of business. Border security can already feel the effects of the new policy. The agency detained more than 100,000 migrants for illegally trying to enter the country. This is the highest total for the month of February since 2006. A record number of migrant teens and children remain in border detention facilities due to the sheer number of incoming migrants. The Biden administration seems ill-prepared to find space for all of them.  

Biden’s border crisis is so severe that his administration is “holding record numbers of unaccompanied migrant teens and children in detention cells for far longer than legally allowed” and federal health officials have fallen “further behind in their race to find space for them in shelters.”

Biden’s Border Policies

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador feels that Biden’s win signals the reopening of borders. “They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States. We need to work together to regulate the flow because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next,” he said. Obrador urged Washington to help stem the flow by providing development aid to Central America. Most migrants originate from there, spurred by the present humanitarian crisis. 

Meanwhile, Mexican cartels saw an opportunity in the change of policies. Mexican intelligence reported that cartels are looking at novel ways to smuggle people into the States. They see the current situation as the most favorable time for migrants to get accepted. With coronavirus restrictions easing up, Mexico remains worried that even more migrants from outside the region will attempt to cross the border. This includes migrants from the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. 

Mexican Cartels Actively Driving Migration

Organized crime took charge the moment Biden took office and changed the way they smuggle their clients into the country. This includes briefing clients on the latest immigration rules, using technology to avoid police and border patrols, and concealing smuggling operations as travel agencies. In addition, smugglers keep in contact with migrants via social media. This helps provide migrants with updated checkpoints, freight trains along the route they can jump. Also, they provide information on where to stay or lie low, and ways to circumvent immigration laws.   

In fact, migrants attempting to reach the US now travel in smaller groups. Also, they take less popular routes to avoid detection. Once inside, they instruct migrants to approach local authorities and say they were victims of crime. This way, they can apply for asylum. In addition, bringing children also makes it easier to apply. The cartel also advised clients they are victims of extortion, and for young able-bodied men, that gangs are forcing them to join or face getting killed. 

Expensive Passage

According to Cesar Peniche, the attorney general of Chihuahua, the high concentration of migrants along the border invites heavy recruitment. Gangs select drug mules from the migrants. Other gangs kidnap unlucky migrants and hold them for ransom. 

Meanwhile, Mexican intelligence reports that smugglers charge migrants depending on origin. Assisting an unaccompanied Central American minor will cost $3,250. However, African travelers will need to pony up $20,000. Also, Asians must pay more. 

Disturbing New Trend 

In addition, US border officials also notice a growing trend. Gangs now make migrants wear colored plastic wristbands as a means of tracking which are their clients and which have paid. The plastic bands sporting different colors, also carrying labels such as “arrivals” or “entries” in Spanish. Once they successfully pass the border successfully, they discard the wristbands. 

A Honduran migrant, who refused to give his name, said he paid $500 for the privilege of wearing a purple bracelet. While he’s wearing this, he remains protected from kidnapping or extortion. He said once migrants or their smugglers paid for the right to cross the river, which is controlled by other criminal groups, they will receive another bracelet. “This way we’re not in danger, neither us nor the coyote (smuggler),” he said.

Watch the Fox News video where former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warns of ‘enormous crisis' at the border after Trump admin stemmed the flow

What is your take on the border situation right now? Are Biden’s border policies making things better for both Americans and migrants? Tell us what you think about the sudden influx of migrants along the southern US border. Share your comments.