Last week, President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ border policies came into question during a hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. Jessica M. Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, spoke and said that the United States’ border policy could be conducive for exploitation by drug cartels.
“The mass migration crisis instigated by the Biden administration’s misguided immigration policies has caused incalculable harm to American communities, to the integrity of our immigration system, and, tragically, to many of the migrants themselves,” said Jessica M. Vaughan, Center for Immigration Studies, in a statement to Congress. “While there are a number of beneficiaries of these policies, including employers seeking cheap, exploitable workers; NGOs who are awarded huge contracts to provide services to migrants; and politicians who welcome the addition of non-citizen constituents to their districts, to name a few, the biggest winners under the Biden-Mayorkas policies are the criminal cartels and other transnational criminal organizations who are reaping profits on a nearly unimaginable scale,” Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica M. Vaughan.
According to a press release issued by CBS News on July 19, the Department of Homeland Security estimates that over 600,000 people evaded agents and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, the highest number in over a decade. Additionally, over 850 migrants died along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022, a record high. The number of migrant deaths has risen for two straight years, as the over 500 deaths recorded in 2021 was a record at the time. These deaths also do not account for the number of deaths of migrants attempting to reach the U.S. border, as the U.S. only counts those who died on U.S. territory.
A press report by Fox News also added that there were reportedly 1.7 million encounters at the border in 2021 and a record 2.3 million in 2022.
In June 2022, over 50 migrants died in a tractor trailer in San Antonio after being left in the heat, the deadliest smuggling case in U.S. history. Those migrants paid their own way to cross into the U.S. illegally, only to die from the neglect of their human smugglers, according to ABC News.
In her testimony, Vaughan specifically mentions several border policies that Mayorkas has implemented that she says has made border crossing more lucrative for human smuggling operations. These policies include: getting rid of barriers at the border and other tactics used in deterring illegal entry; asking Border Patrol to coordinate with Mexican border authorities to allow large groups of migrants to cross; directing Border Patrol to go against security enhancements installed by Texas; not vetting immigrants properly before taking them to points of entry for processing and release; that the conditions of release for migrants aren’t being enforced in many cases; and directing ICE to not investigate employers who hire unauthorized workers.
According to Vaughn, human trafficking is a $14 billion business. Reportedly, Mexican cartels have profited more off of human trafficking along the southern border than they have through drug trafficking.
In Vaughn’s testimony, she mentions that the smuggling fees for entry into the U.S. could cost thousands of dollars, and the journey to the United States, then within the U.S. on their way to their final destination, is extremely dangerous. Often, migrants are forced to work by the cartels to pay off their debt in dangerous and unfair conditions. Many of these trafficked people are children, as 27% of the cases reported to human trafficking hotlines involved minors.
