While the mainstream media and much of the nation are preoccupied with sob stories about the shelter accommodations of illegal immigrants, the U.S.-Mexico border remains a cesspool of crime where federal agents have confiscated more than 360,000 pounds of drugs, arrested thousands of individuals with criminal convictions and busted hundreds of violent gangbangers so far this year. The latest statistics issued by the Border Patrol are downright disturbing and illustrate the urgency of properly securing the famously porous southwest border. Through the end of May 2018, the frontline Department of Homeland (DHS) agency reveals that it seized 360,241 pounds of marijuana, 7,205 pounds of methamphetamine, 5,321 pounds of cocaine, 315 pounds of heroin and 309 pounds of fentanyl. The agency also encountered 18,568 criminal aliens convicted of a crime or wanted by law enforcement and 509 gang members, mostly from the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs. The criminal aliens listed in the 2018 Border Patrol figures include those convicted of felonies such as assault, battery and domestic violence as well as burglary, possession of illegal weapons and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In the last few days alone, as media coverage focuses almost exclusively on the separation of illegal alien families, Border Patrol sectors tasked with guarding the 2,000-mile southern border report large quantities of smuggled drugs and other illicit activity from Mexico. Just a few days ago a Honduran man, convicted of raping a child, was caught trying to re-enter the U.S. through the Eagle Pass station in Texas. The man is a registered sex offender in Houston who got deported after serving a five-year sentence. Press release after press release issued by the Border Patrol in the past week alone offer alarming details of the crime that has gripped the Mexican border region. Drug smuggling appears to be the most popular activity with most southern border sectors reporting multiple busts in the last few weeks. More than 123 pounds of methamphetamine were seized in one day in Arizona’s Port of San Luis last week and a day later the Laredo sector in Texas seized nearly 26 pounds of methamphetamine. Less than 24 hours earlier, the Laredo sector seized $4.2 million worth of crystal meth at the Gateway to the Americas International Bridge. In the same week, federal agents in Hidalgo Texas confiscated nearly $3 million worth of methamphetamine and agents in nearby Pharr discovered commercial trailer moving more than half a million dollars in heroin from Mexico. This week, officers in New Mexico seized more than $1.1 million in narcotics smuggled in a wrecked vehicle and violent gangbangers were captured by Border Patrol in Arizona, California and Texas. One of the men, a Mexican national arrested in El Centro California, was convicted of child molestation. Another Mexican national apprehended near San Ysidro California was convicted of murder and served more than three decades in prison, the government states in its press release. Two of the illegal immigrants—one arrested in Three Points Arizona and the other in McAllen Texas—are members of the MS-13. Circling back to the media frenzy involving the supposed separation of illegal immigrant families, Judicial Watch spent a few days on the U.S.-Mexico border last week and spoke to Border Patrol and U.S. Customs officers who say the vast majority of kids arriving from Mexico are either totally unaccompanied or with adults that are not their parents. In a June 18 White House press briefing, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said illegal immigrants are separated if there’s no documentation to confirm the claimed relationship between an adult and a child or if the parent is a national security, public or safety risk, including when there are criminal charges at issue. “We also separate a parent and child if the adult is suspected of human trafficking,” Nielsen said. “There have been cases where minors have been used and trafficked by unrelated adults in an effort to avoid detention. And I’d stop here to say, in the last five months, we have a 314 percent increase in adults and children arriving at the border, fraudulently claiming to be a family unit.” |
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