As a shocking humanitarian crisis continues at the U.S. southern border, a new documentary reveals exactly how cartels manipulate and exacerbate the chaos for their benefit.
Federal Inaction
In federal Fiscal Year 2021, Customs and Border Protection reported a record-breaking 1.7 million encounters along the U.S. southern border, and Fiscal Year 2022 has already surpassed the previous record. Among the millions of illegal invaders are smugglers, human traffickers, criminals, terrorists, predators, and unaccompanied children at the mercy of a ruthless cartel operation.
In a new documentary titled “Intentional Invasion,” producer Brett Rogers and Sheena Rodriguez, president of Alliance for a Safe Texas, explain the crisis.
“The situation is turning back into the wild west,” said South Texas’ Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe, explaining that drug smuggling and human trafficking have dramatically risen. This was confirmed by smugglers themselves, who said last year that “business is booming” because of Biden’s benefits.
In Kinney County, smugglers will often carry firearms during their operations. Before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Coe said they saw “maybe two or three [pistols] a year.” Coe explained that after Biden took office, firearms are seized from smugglers “12-14 [times] a month, because everybody’s armed.”
Coe described one shooting incident that occurred when a smuggler attempted to run over a Kinney County deputy. Upon his apprehension, they discovered the smuggler was a 15-year-old from San Antonio.
According to Coe, cartels are luring kids into smuggling operations by offering $1,000-2,000 for every person driven from the border into the nation’s interior.
“For every smuggler who is apprehended by law enforcement,” said Coe, “eight or 10 make it through because the invasion is overwhelming our resources.”
“Intentional Invasion” also details how cartels bribe or coerce landowners into enabling them to use their land for cartel operations.
In a letter to President Biden, Texas Congressman Troy Nehls wrote, “Border ranchers are experiencing violence firsthand as cartel members, who are dressed in camouflage and carrying weapons to protect their drug lords, march over the border and across their lands.” He added, “Some ranchers have experienced over 15 armed drug traffickers on their property at one time.”
Coe said carjacking is also common. He described one incident where a stolen car was driven through fences until it ran out of gas, at which point the carjacker pushed the vehicle into a ravine, illustrating how citizens bear the cost of the damage.
“The insurance company has got to cover that. Your insurance goes up, my insurance goes up, because of things like that.”
State Inaction
In a recent Fox News interview, Gov. Greg Abbott acknowledged that “we have an invasion driven by the cartels.” However, “Intentional Invasion” questions Abbott’s motives and dedication to securing the border.
Abbott has spent $25 million on two miles of temporary fencing in Eagle Pass, meant to deter illegal aliens from entering Texas. He also used taxpayer money to bus illegal aliens to Washington, D.C., and New York City, a move that Kari Lake, Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, described as a “cute photo op.”
The documentary notes that the two-mile fencing fails to achieve results, since “many here illegally [are] politely processed by U.S. Border Patrol and then given a bus to their next destination.”
Drone footage in the documentary confirms this.
“Texas DPS, U.S. Border Patrol, and National Guard vehicles are all there to politely assist in the processing of those here illegally and to help them get on the bus to the next stage in the process,” the documentary asserts. Transportation vans then “emerge from private land at the southernmost end of the wall” to transport the illegals to the nation’s interior.
Abbott has tried to secure the border in a multitude of ways, including a vehicle wall made up of Texas State Trooper cruisers, a “short” wall made up of shipping containers, and fences with razor wire. However, smugglers easily avoided the razor wire by simply cutting through the chain-link fence.
“Intentional Invasion” further exposes the border’s lack of security, describing how “north and south of Del Rio and Eagle Pass, no barrier has been erected at all.”
In Del Rio, the city’s Department of Public Health serves as a pitstop for illegal crossers. Their building has Texas Department of Public Safety officials and Texas Emergency Management “standing watch” and ensuring that “everything moves smoothly.”
“[Illegal aliens] cross in Eagle Pass, [get] apprehended by Border Patrol, turn themselves in, and then processed at the Border Patrol facility,” a Venezuelan individual told retired Border Patrol officer Frank Lopez Jr. in Del Rio. “They have two of them in Eagle Pass, and then he was turned over to Mission: Border Hope, which is another NGO.” Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Mission: Border Hope “help [illegal aliens] arrange for bus tickets, air travel, [and] communicate with family.”
In an attempt to hide the severity of the crisis, NGOs like Mission: Border Hope are awarded “huge contracts to expedite [illegal alien] movement.” The documentary explains how “with the number of women and children indebted to the cartels for getting them to the U.S. border and beyond, your tax dollars fund and facilitate human trafficking” through NGOs.
Notably, the Texas GOP legislative priority Secure the Border and Protect Texans states, “Texas shall immediately deny all taxpayer-funded services and subsidies to illegal aliens.”
Opponents of. Abbott’s busing of illegal immigrants to major cities under Operation Lone Star say this violates this priority and the broader principle of fiscal responsibility.
Concerned citizens can utilize Texas Scorecard’s directory to contact their representatives and the governor’s office.
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