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Washington, D.C. (April 12, 2024) - In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow, joins us live from Juarez, Mexico. Bensman takes us into La Linea Cartel territory, where he is investigating the smuggling of dangerous criminals into the United States. 

Reporting from the Mexican side of the border, opposite El Paso, Bensman offers a firsthand account of migrant activity from the area where just two weeks ago hundreds of migrants pushed past Texas law enforcement in a daring charge to reach the Border Patrol, which they know will quickly process and release them. Other migrants – especially on the west side of Juarez, opposite Democratic-run New Mexico – are “runners”, illegal aliens who do not turn themselves in because of criminal histories or warrants. 

Bensman witnesses the operation launched by the Mexican president to round up migrants and move them hundreds of miles south. This operation, involving hundreds of officers from across Mexico, utilizes minibuses deployed to key border areas. It forms part of a deal with the Biden administration, where Mexico has demanded $20 billion annually to address the so-called “root causes” of migration in Latin America and the Caribbean, the lifting of sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, and the granting of amnesty to millions of Mexican illegal immigrants in the U.S. 

On the Texan side of the border, Bensman describes a surge in fencing construction, with miles of infrastructure being erected to deter illegal crossings. Texas authorities employ a variety of non-lethal tactics, including the use of pepper balls, to control crowds. However, despite these efforts, vulnerabilities persist, as evidenced by American contractors patching holes in the fence throughout the day, every day. 

In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and podcast host, highlights the Biden administration once again teasing that it is going to do something dramatic to control the border. Of course, the president has always had the authority to limit who comes into the country, but has chosen not to.