It is now common knowledge that most migrants illegally crossing our southern border are either simply admitted to the U.S. or–rarely–returned to Mexico to try again next time. What may come as a surprise, however, is that most smugglers, members of criminal cartels, are now being allowed to drop off their human cargos in full view of U.S. officials and permitted to return to escort more across. No arrests. Stand down.
Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies documents this new practice in a May 27, 2021, posting on CIS.org.
Bensman tells how he recently witnessed a raft bearing illegal migrants and piloted by a smuggler cross the Rio Grande to land on the U.S. side. A Border Patrol supervisory agent on the scene instructed a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officer to bring the migrants over for processing, but not to arrest the paddler. When asked about the policy of standing down before the smugglers, the DPS officer explained to Bensman that “all federal agents on the river operate under this arrest stand-down nowadays.”
[The Border Patrol] know [federal prosecutors] won’t prosecute; they’ll let them go,” the state officer explained as he walked toward the arriving raft. “Then, he’ll [the boat smuggler] just be right back. The Border Patrol agents won’t do it because they have no backing, none whatsoever. So there’s no use.
Bensman writes, “As a result of this hands-off truce, those smugglers now freely and fearlessly do their work right in front of agents who feel they are under orders to act more like Walmart greeters than law enforcers.”
Technically, Texas state officials could themselves arrest the smugglers under state law, though traditionally federal officials have taken precedence. Yet the Texas DPS is reluctant to interfere given the potential violence of the cartels. A Texas official explained that attempting to arrest the rafters might provoke them to throw children into the river to distract the arresting officers, so in general it’s hands off and let them do their work.
For more of this amazing story, see CIS.org.