Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Greg Sindelar delivered a speech Tuesday highlighting the emergency at the southern border, and how both the U.S and Mexican governments' policy has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, during the American Society of Mexico's Binational Convention in Mexico City.
Sindelar called on U.S. and Texas officials to take bold action to counter the brutal and destabilizing "invasion" from cartels and their allies.
In his speech before U.S. and Mexican business and civic leaders, Sindelar references the "heartbreaking" human toll of more than 1,000 fatalities at the border since January 2021. He says that date marks a significant shift in U.S. border policy that led to "a massive wave of migration" from Mexico, resulting in increased Mexican cartel activity, which monetizes and commoditizes hopeful migrants as "disposable parts of a money-making machine."
“Leadership is confronting the brutal facts, not ignoring them. Both the U.S. and Mexican governments have ignored the facts, pursuing policies that refuse to hold those engaged in illegal immigration, sex trafficking and drug smuggling accountable for their actions,” Sindelar said in a media advisory. “I am honored to speak before the American Society of Mexico and advocate for policies that will hold the cartels responsible for their brutality and help create the conditions necessary for change that is long overdue.”
He argued that cartels effectively maintain "complete control over the southern side of the border" and are involved in even more insidious operations than human and drug smuggling.
"The cartels take more than money from women and girls. Some are sold into the sex trade or into modern-day slavery," he said. "Rape, assault, and sexual slavery are an everyday fact of life for the women and children who attempt to cross. And there is one root cause: The cartels have complete control over the southern side of the border."
"But it’s not just hopeful migrants crossing the border," Sindelar reminds the crowd in Mexico City. The cartels also help facilitate the border crossings of criminal elements, people on the terrorist watch list, and drugs. To the cartels, "every migrant is a potential drug mule" and those drugs are "killing Americans in record numbers," he said.
The Department of Justice describes the South Texas border area as "a principal drug smuggling corridor" between Mexico and the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that overdoses nationwide reached record-breaking levels in 2021, nearing 108,000 total overdose deaths, out of which more than 71,000 were fentanyl-related.
A recent exposé by the Wall Street Journal describes how the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels have come to "dominate" the supply of deadly fentanyl to the U.S.
Sindelar called on the state and federal governments to meet these threats from the cartels and their allies by declaring an "invasion underway" under the U.S. Constitution’s Article I, Section 10, and officially designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, and therefore allow much more aggressive and punitive measures.
Mexico is one of the most significant trading partners with the U.S. and Texas' most important. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Mexico was second behind Canada, with more than $660 billion in trade with the U.S.
The American Society of Mexico exists to "improve bilateral relations" between the U.S. and Mexico by facilitating closer cultural, business and civic ties.
