While the surge of illegal immigrants at the border starts to overwhelm the system, the Biden administration is still refusing to classify the situation as a crisis. Despite a visit to jam packed Customs and Border Protection detention facilities this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas still hasn't briefed President Biden on what he saw.
Now, another crisis is emerging. Gangs and violent criminal enterprises are taking advantage of Biden's lax enforcement policies. Reuters has the details:
Among U.S. steps Mexico worries are encouraging migration are improved support for victims of gangs and violence, streamlining of the legalization process, and suspension of Trump-era accords that deported people to Central America.
One Mexican official familiar with migration developments, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said organized crime began changing its modus operandi “from the day Biden took office” and now exhibited “unprecedented” levels of sophistication.
That includes briefing clients on the latest immigration rules, using technology to outfox authorities, and disguising smuggling operations as travel agencies, assessments showed.
Higher concentrations of migrants in border areas have encouraged gangs to recruit some as drug mules, and kidnap others for money, said Cesar Peniche, attorney general of Chihuahua, the state with the longest stretch of U.S. frontier.
The unaccompanied minor crisis has been a boon for human smuggling operations.
During the unaccompanied minor crisis under President Obama, violent street gang MS-13 used detention centers to recruit new members.
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According to Border Patrol sources, violent MS-13 gang members are using the Nogales processing center in Arizona as a recruitment hub and as a transfer point for gang members to get into the United States.
The Red Cross has set up phone banks inside the processing center so unaccompanied minors can make phone calls to family members inside the United States and back home in Central America. According to sources, those phones are also being used by MS-13 members to communicate with gang members already in the United States and operating in cities like Atlanta, New York and Chicago. Further, many teenaged males inside the facility have approached Border Patrol agents and have said gang members have tried to recruit them from shared cells. According to the FBI, MS-13 regularly targets middle and high school students for recruitment.
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