U.S. Customs and Border Protection has released alarming video from Arizona showing heavily armed cartel traffickers escorting a woman and her child illegally across the southern border.
"Border Patrol cameras observed several men armed with assault rifles escort a mother and child to the international boundary west of Lukeville. The armed men dropped off the pair in an area commonly used by smugglers to bring massive numbers of Central Americans into the country illegally," Defense Visual Information Distribution Service reported.
#USBP cameras capture armed men escorting Central American mother and son across the U.S./Mexico border in #Arizona @CBP video available here: https://t.co/xyD26HRlVj pic.twitter.com/dvI3c4ddO6
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) April 23, 2019
During an interview on Fox News Tuesday, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan explained agents are prepared to handle violent encounters, but stressed the need to solve the ongoing crisis at the border.
"We've seen smugglers using long arms, AK-47s, high capacity rifles for years and we are prepared to encounter that. We have special teams, our Border Patrol tactical unit [BORTAC] out and operating in areas where we have cartel activity, bandit activity, but that is a concern escorting a woman and her child across, multiple heavily armed men, you wonder what's going on in the northern part of Mexico where they entered," McAleenan said about the footage.
WATCH: @DanaPerino's full interview with @DHSgov @DHSMcAleenan #DailyBriefing pic.twitter.com/Y5q7LQp2H3
— The Daily Briefing (@dailybriefing) April 23, 2019
International jurisdiction protects cartel members from U.S. apprehension. Human smuggling is a billion dollar industry for cartels across Mexico.
Just spoke with a border agent. Basically, a group of belligerent cartel members can walk right up to the line armed to the teeth and orchestrate a human smuggling flow into our country and they are told they cannot nab those cartel dudes.
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) April 24, 2019