Rep. William Timmons (R-SC) stated that Mexican cartels have overrun the southern border after a Turkish national reported paying the cartel $10,000 to illegally cross into the U.S.
"The cartels have overrun our southern border,” Rep. William Timmons said," said William Richardson Timmons, US Rep. (R-SC). "This Turkish man paid TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS to the cartel to cross into the United States. He said he was SHOCKED at how easy it was to cross and how he was met with ZERO RESISTANCE. We MUST stop this madness!"
According to a New York Times article from 2022, Mexican drug cartels have evolved from freelance "coyotes" to a well-run business in smuggling migrants into the country. The cartels charge between $4,000 and $20,000 depending on whether the individual is coming from Central America, Africa, Eastern Europe, or Asia. In 2022, the cartels were making approximately $13 billion annually from this migration business.
Rep. Timmons' X
| X (Twitter)
Fox News reported that a Turkish man sold everything he owned and paid a cartel $10,000 to enter the U.S. The man crossed the border illegally into San Diego County, currently the busiest region in the U.S. for illegal immigration, where in April alone there were 37,370 illegal crossings. He also warned about security deficiencies at the border: "Who comes into this country? They don’t know. OK, I’m good. But how if they’re not good? How if they’re killers, psychopath," he said. "Like, no security, no security check, no background check."
A Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) representative said to the New York Post: "We apprehend criminal aliens every day on the southwest border." The spokesman described it as "a daily occurrence." CBP data indicates that over 35,000 migrants with prior criminal records were apprehended last year and over 10,000 have been detained in 2024 already.
According to another New York Post article, border agents encountered 98 individuals on the FBI terror watchlist at US borders in FY 2022 and 172 in FY 2023. By early 2024, there had already been 59 individuals on the watchlist who had been apprehended.
Rep. William Timmons is a former state senator who joined Congress in 2019 and serves as a JAG Officer and Captain in the South Carolina Air National Guard.
