An alleged human smuggler said “benefits” being provided by President Joe Biden have spurred migrants’ efforts to attempt crossing the US-Mexico border illegally,
In a video by Univision Noticias this week, the alleged trafficker told a reporter that illegal immigrants have found the “courage” to unlawfully cross
“Is business booming right now?” the reporter asked an alleged coyote. “Does it pay well?”
“It does, given the situation with the people,” the man responded.
According to the reporter, the two young men have “built a profitable business by helping Central American families seeking asylum to cross (the US-Mexico border).”
“We just come here to earn our daily bread like everybody else. … In all honesty, there are way too many people. Believe me,” a second alleged trafficker stated.
“With the benefits your new president is now granting, people found the courage to come,” he continued.
The report comes as the Biden administration faces record-breaking illegal immigration, a rate that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said is on track to be the highest in 20 years.
Over 100,000 illegal immigrants were encountered at the border in February, almost three times the number from the same period last year.
The Biden administration has refused to call the situation at the border a “crisis” and last week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said climate change was partially responsible for the migrant surge.
“Before COVID, a few months—oh, about half a year before COVID–I did take a delegation to the Northern Triangle–speaking of travel–to see what the causes of migration were,” Pelosi said. “And of course, it’s corruption. It’s violence. It’s also, which was new to me as one who is a follower of the climate issue, that climate played a role as well.”
“The drought, the rest, impacting agriculture in those countries contributed to people leaving and coming to our country, again, for economic reasons,” she said. “That’s not necessarily an opportunity to come into our country, but a motivation for people to try.”
Earlier this month, Mexico reportedly expressed concerns that President Biden’s border policies are leading to the massive surge in illegal immigration and allowing the country’s most dangerous drug cartels to grow.
Reuters reported that Mexican officials are “worried the new U.S. administration’s asylum policies are stoking illegal immigration and creating business for organized crime.”
“They see him as the migrant president, and so many feel they’re going to reach the United States,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said referring to Biden the morning after a meeting with the president. “We need to work together to regulate the flow, because this business can’t be tackled from one day to the next.”
According to the report, Mexican intelligence believes the cartels are expanding their smuggling methods as the U.S. implements policies that “incentivize migration.”
One Mexican official familiar with the situation said the cartels started improving their methods “from the day Biden took office” and are now showing “unprecedented” refinement in their techniques.
“Migrants have become a commodity,” the official said, adding that people have become as valuable as drugs for the gangs. “But if a packet of drugs is lost in the sea, it’s gone. If migrants are lost, it’s human beings we’re talking about.”
