Washington, D.C. (May 6, 2021) - During his recent trips to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Todd Bensman, the senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, spoke with human smugglers and their migrant customers, as well as border agents and local residents. Bensman shares their stories about the consequences of U.S. policies that have caused the surge of illegal crossings at the border. They range from the smuggling cartels' sales pitches to potential migrants in Central America to persuade them to spend thousands of dollars on a risky journey to the U.S., to the dispersal of these illegal migrants across the country through Biden’s "catch-and-bus" policy of releasing these lawbreakers on the honor system.
Bensman said, “My trips have allowed me a rare inside look at the long-haul smuggling industry that is now booming. The cartel-controlled conveyor belt bringing migrants to the U.S. border has greatly expanded after what one of the La Linea cartel’s smugglers I interviewed described as Joe Biden’s la invitacion to the world’s aspiring immigrants.”
To conclude this episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director, shifts conversation away from illegal immigration to the topic of legal immigration and the pause, or rather slowdown, in immigration that occurred in the mid-20 th century. Krikorian makes the case for a similar pause, without the national-origins filter, in the 21 st century.
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