The Subcommittee Staff visited with Federal, State and local law
enforcement officials and residents to obtain first-hand knowledge.
Americans should not only be troubled by the ability of Mexican drug
cartels to move their wares across our border; they should be worried we
are leaving the door open wide enough for terrorists to enter our
country by crossing the Mexican Border.
There are 43 ports of entry which are linked to major U.S. highway
systems. ALITS notes that, despite the efforts of our law enforcement
officials, Mexican drug cartels are taking advantage of these gateways
to move their products and personnel. "The cartels operate along the
border with military grade weapons, technology and intelligence and
their own respective paramilitary enforcers." The Department of Justice
National Drug Intelligence Center, in its January 2006 report, "National
Drug Threat Assessment," warns that the Mexican drug cartels are
foreclosing on territory in Florida and New York considered to be the
purview of the Colombian and Dominican criminal organizations. ALITS
reports:
"To protect and expand their criminal operations, Mexican drug cartels
maintain highly developed intelligence networks on both sides of the
border and have hired private armies to carry out enforcement measures.
For example, the Gulf Cartel leader Cardenas employs a group of former
elite military soldiers known as 'Los Zetas.' The Zetas are unique among
drug enforcer groups in that they operate as 'a private army under the
orders of Cardenas' Gulf Cartel, the first time a drug lord has had his
own paramilitary.' The Zetas have been instrumental in the Gulf Cartel's
domination of the drug trade in Nuevo Laredo, and have fought to
maintain the cartel's influence in that city following the arrest of
Cardenas. The Zetas' activities are not limited to defending the Gulf
Cartel's terrain in northern Mexico. The paramilitary force is also
believed to control trafficking routes along the eastern half of the
U.S.-Mexico border.
"Reports indicate that while the Zetas were initially comprised of
members of the Mexican military's Special Forces, they now include
Federal, State, and local law enforcement personnel as well as
civilians. Moreover, according to U.S. intelligence officials, Zetas are
recruiting former Guatemalan Special Forces military personnel known as
Kaibiles and member of the notorious cross-border gangs known as Maras,
including the violent Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13)."
Surprisingly, ALITS states that smuggling humans over our border can be
an even more profitable enterprise than trafficking in illegal drugs.
Traffickers in humans must pay fees when moving through corridors
controlled by drug cartels. The risk of smuggling drugs is greater.
Criminals caught attempting to smuggle drugs into our country cannot
easily disown the evidence. Illegal aliens caught at our border tend
not to identify their escorts. The drug smuggling rings are increasingly
working with rings that smuggle humans, coordinating their efforts to
confound the Border Patrol.
Gang members from Mexico and Central and South America are crossing the
Mexican Border to commit all kinds of mayhem. When Robert S. Mueller
III, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, presented
unclassified testimony on February 16, 2005 before the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, he noted the Department of Justice estimates
there are approximately 30,000 gangs with over 800,000 members in our
country. One of the worst is MS-13. NEWSWEEK reported in a March 28,
2005 story that this gang has at least 8,000 members in over 30 States
and is viewed to be "the fastest-growing, most violent and least
understood of the nation's street gangs." The FBI has formed a National
Gang Task Force, the mission of which is to scrutinize the activities of
this depraved operation. The gang has been known to visit drugstores to
steal cough medicine, used to make other drugs. Such seemingly small
acts of petty thievery were yielding an average of $45,000 to $55,000 of
stolen merchandise a day in the Midwest. MS-13's thievery is
supplemented by assaults, rapes and murders. So-called gang
"constitutions" have been seized by the FBI, according to a January 5,
2006 USA TODAY story, "MS-13 Gang Growing Extremely Dangerous, FBI
Says." Reporter Kevin Johnson wrote, "The documents, most of them
crudely handwritten codes of conduct, listed a range of punishments -
from death to severe beatings - for transgressions against the gang."
Smugglers of drugs and humans frequently exhibit no regard for human
life. Earlier this year, a Texas sheriff's office discovered 56 illegal
immigrants trapped inside a refrigerated trailer. Many were on the verge
of freezing to death. Illegal aliens trying to sneak across the border
by train are ready victims for assaults and robberies by gang members,
common criminals and corrupt Mexican governmental and law-enforcement
officials. Webb County, Texas Sheriff Rick Flores, in an August 16,
2006 statement to the Subcommittee on Investigations, cited concern that
gangs are equipped with sophisticated weaponry, such as AK-47 assault
rifles, sniper scopes, rocket-propelled grenades.
Most disturbing, it is not only Central Americans and Mexicans who are
traveling illegally across our Southwest Border. ALITS reports, "Since
September 11, 2001 to the present hundreds of illegal aliens from
special interest countries (such as Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Cuba, Brazil, Ecuador, China, Russia,
Yemen, Albania, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan) were apprehended within the
South Texas region alone." Securing our border in the Southwest may
soon be more than a matter of stopping unlawful immigrants from taking
American jobs; it may be a matter of saving lives by the hundreds or
thousands.
Many immigrants are willing to do the paperwork and wait to enter our
country legally because they want to prosper playing by the rules. We
welcome them. Others are unwilling to come to our country legally. Too
many are coming to the United States for all the wrong reasons. More
Border Patrol members, better technology and increased funding for State
and local law enforcement patrolling the Mexican Border can help make
our borders safer from penetration by gangs and terrorists.
Chambliss remarked that Congress, having passed two critical pieces of
legislation - the Secure Fence Act and the Homeland Security
Appropriations Act - must stay "focused on this critical issue."
Congress needs to provide exacting oversight of our efforts to stop
unlawful activity along the Mexican Border.
America has not been targeted by a terrorist attack since 9/11.
Complacent Americans need to read ALITS, which is available on the
website of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and to carefully
reconsider their viewpoint. Americans - and there are many -who have
long been concerned about the lack of adequate enforcement along the
Mexican Border can write letters to editors and call radio talk shows to
spread the word about ALITS. Homeland security is an enormous task, one
that demands careful prioritizing. There are many potential threats.
Having the Mexican Border so porous is a serious matter, particularly
given the ability of terrorists to enter our country to commit serious
crime.