Washington, D.C. (July 25, 2023) – The expansion of cartels and other transnational criminal organizations’ operations as a result of Biden’s border policies was the topic of a House Homeland Security Committee hearing entitled “Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America.” The Center’s director of policy studies, Jessica Vaughan, testified on the rise of human smuggling and trafficking, which now is said to surpass drug trafficking as a source of profits for these criminal organizations.
Vaughan answered several questions from the committee, primarily regarding the cartels’ exploitation of migrant children and other vulnerable migrants. When discussing the Biden administration’s misguided immigration policies, Vaughan said, "The biggest winners are the criminal cartels who've been raking in huge profits made possible only because these policies give them an endless supply of vulnerable customers they can exploit and abuse, and hundreds of thousands of them are children."
She explained how unaccompanied alien children (UACs) are placed with sponsors who are barely vetted with very little follow up to ensure these children are placed in good homes. "These standards . . . are way, way inferior to the procedures every state in the Union uses for foster care placements. It's been said it's harder to adopt a cat than it is to sponsor an unaccompanied minor."
Vaughan highlighted, for example, "a number of instances where girls have been placed with older men, in what is clearly an exploitative situation. There are kids who have been turned over to labor traffickers... gang members... domestic servitude and other forms of abuse."
Testimony emphasized Biden policies that make trafficking easier for the cartels, including a catch and release policy for most border crossers, the dismantling of immigration enforcement in the interior, and the CBP One app, which allows inadmissible aliens to enter through the ports of entry. Vaughan disagrees with administration claims that the app allows migrants enter the United States more safely, without doing business with the cartels. CBP One can only be used from locations in central and northern Mexico, so migrants still need to get there, which for most still means paying a cartel-approved smuggler. And, the appointment itself turns out to be yet another opportunity for extortion by the cartels.
Vaughan concludes on a positive note, noting that we have the tools to fight back against trafficking. “We have effective tools to fight back against the cartels directly, but the most obvious step is to secure the border and control illegal migration; to deny them the opportunity to make money off the migration dreams of vulnerable people.”
You can watch the hearing and read her full written testimony, which provides recommendations to the committee on how to address issues at the border,
here.
