Is American about to send special forces into Mexico

Is America about to send special forces into Mexico? Growing calls for US military to tackle migrant crisis and cartels amid chaos at border

• Migrants from across the world continue to flood into the US through its southern border creating more headaches for the Biden administration
• The numbers using freight trains became so large that Mexico’s largest railroad company suspended US-bound services last week  

America is facing record-breaking numbers of migrants from Latin America, Africa and beyond crossing the US/Mexico border by foot and by train creating an unenviable political task for Joe Biden as he heads into election season as all sides of the political spectrum call for action. 

Donald Trump has called it in an ‘invasion’ and promised military action if he is reelected and other Republican frontrunners, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have promised to send in troops to deal with Mexico’s drug cartels while Biden’s administration continues to scramble for solutions.

In the small border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, the city’s Democratic mayor has declared a state of emergency where last week it’s thought that 100,000 people waded through the Rio Grande, the river that flows between Mexico and the US, and into the town. 

A police officer in Eagle Pass told DailyMail.com: ‘We have a crisis. I don’t care what the federal government says.’ 

Officials have long said that the influx of migrants crossing the border illegally is directly linked to multi-billion dollar human trafficking schemes run by the notoriously violent Mexican drug cartels. 

The operator of Mexico ‘s largest railroad network has partially shut down service following the deaths and injuries of at least half-dozen migrants who were attempting to reach the United States border

Migrants from across the world continue to flood into the US through its southern border creating more headaches for the Biden administration

Officials have long said that the influx of migrants crossing the border illegally is directly linked to multi-billion dollar human trafficking schemes run by the notoriously violent Mexican drug cartels

‘We have a crisis. I don’t care what the federal government says,’ Sergeant Rene Cordova (above) told DailyMail.com as he stands overlooking a murky stretch of the Rio Grande River outside of Eagle Pass.

Around two million migrants are thought to have crossed the US southern border in 2023 with many citing Biden’s lax policies as a reason. Another 500,000 could cross by the end of the year. 

Recently, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that 800 more military service men and women would be sent to the border to aid the crisis joining the more than 2,500 National Guardsman who are already present. 

A common route for many migrants sees them leap aboard US-bound freight trains in order to get across the border. This has become so common, that Mexico’s biggest railroad company announced a suspension of services. 

Those coming from further south mainly travel on foot which results in them being forced to cross the treacherous Darien Gap, a jungle area in Panama seen as a pathway between South and Central America. 

Those troops however are not on a front line and are reduced to administration roles, allowing Customs and Border Protection officers to do more work with migrants. 

Last week, Biden announced plans to quickly process more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants who have crossed the border since July 31 in order to provide some relief to the growing numbers that underfunded border officials are forced to deal with. 

The numbers of migrants has been steadily rising since May 2023 when Title 42 expired. The Trump-era rule was enacted during the Covid-19 pandemic and allowed officials to turn away those crossing the border en masse citing public health risks. 

Many migrants are the victims of elaborate multi-billion dollar human trafficking schemes that are run by drug cartels 

Migrants in Huehuetoca, State of Mexico watch a train go past as they wait along the train tracks hoping to board a freight train heading north on Tuesday

That has resulted in more than double the amount of migrants crossing the border per day. This weekend, border crossings on average were recorded at 8,600, up from 3,500 which was the average prior to the expiration of Title 42.

Last week, former President Donald Trump announced his plan to deploy thousands of foreign-based troops to the border during a rally in Iowa. In his remarks, Trump referred to the border crossings as an ‘invasion.’ 

It’s not clear if the Trump would support sending those troops across the border. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in an interview with CBS’s Norah O’Donnell that if elected president he would send the military to the border and authorize the use of deadly force against members of drug cartels.

DeSantis is Trump’s top rival but remains some 40 percentage points behind him in opinion polls.

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley has also endorsed the use of military force in Mexico, but has said this is in relation to tackling drug cartels. Haley has also spoke in favor of the use of targeted drone and missile strikes.  

About one in six Republicans consider immigration as the most pressing issue facing the country, making it the third most important issue to them after the economy and crime, a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month showed. 

A visibly pregnant woman is next. She’s guided to river on the Mexican side by a smuggler. (Above, middle) Aurymar Barrios, a pregnant 21-year-old from Venezuela

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, for his part, has repeatedly made clear that Mexico would not tolerate U.S. military action within its borders and has derided the calls as ‘irresponsible’ and ‘pure publicity.’

He has urged Mexican-Americans in the U.S. to vote against Republicans pushing such ideas and said that Mexico would react to any incursion, without giving details. Mostly he has dismissed the threats as electioneering.

‘As we are in election season, they talk about intervening in Mexican affairs, about not respecting our sovereignty; They insult us, but one shouldn’t take them too seriously,’ he said last month in one of his regular press conferences.

On Monday, an unnamed border patrol official told the Washington Examiner that the migrant’s movements are linked to criminal organizations. 

‘You will continue to see these large waves coming. A lot has to do with the coordination by criminal elements that organize the movements of the migrants,’ the official said. 

Another official described the criminal gangs’ operation as involving ‘hard-core recruiting’ and ‘transportation,’ according to ABC News. 

The sheriff of Maverick County, where Eagle Pass is located, told CNN that he believes the cartels are behind the surge in migrants. 

‘I mean they’re making money with the immigrants. They’re making money with the drugs. “I know this because we have smugglers coming from Houston, Florida, Austin – everywhere to pick up these immigrants. There’s a connection there,’ Sheriff Tom Schmerber said. 

Former President Donald Trump has said that he will deploy troops at the southern border if he’s reelected

Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley has also endorsed the use of military force in Mexico

A Democrat, Schmerber opposes Biden’s policies on the border accusing the president of sending a message to Latin America that ‘the border will be open.’

The typical mode of transportation taken by thousands of migrants, climbing on board freight trains bound for the US, was halted last week when Mexico’s largest railroad Ferromex put a stop to trains that crossed the border because of concerns over migrants. 

In Eagle Pass, the town where a state of emergency was declared this year, saw that most of the migrants who have been flooding the municipality are Venezuelan natives. 

The Homeland Security Department plans to grant Temporary Protected Status to an estimated 472,000 Venezuelans who arrived in the country as of July 31, making it easier for them to get authorization to work in the U.S. 

That’s been a key demand of Democratic mayors and governors who are struggling to care for an increased number of migrants in their care. 

That’s in addition to about 242,700 Venezuelans who already qualified for temporary status before Wednesday’s announcement. 

Venezuela plunged into a political, economic and humanitarian crisis over the last decade, pushing at least 7.3 million people to migrate and making food and other necessities unaffordable for those who remain. 

The vast majority who fled settled in neighboring countries in Latin America, but many began coming to the United States in the last three years through the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle in Panama. 

A floating buoy wall in the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico that was installed by the state of Texas as part of Operation Lone Sta 

The floatation devices are used as a means to prevent people from swimming across the Rio Grande

The operator of Mexico ‘s largest railroad network has partially shut down service following the deaths and injuries of at least half-dozen migrants who were attempting to reach the United States border. On Wednesday morning, hundreds of migrants, including children, were still seen perched atop dozens of freight train wagons

The Democratic mayor of another border city, El Paso, has said said that his city is a ‘breaking point’ due to the crisis. 

This weekend, Mayor Oscar Leeser also chartered five buses to take migrants to New York, Chicago and Denver.

Cochise County, Arizona, is being slammed with waves of migrants bussed from other counties after crossing the border amid President Joe Biden’s lax policies.

‘The intellectual avoidance and abandonment with intended consequences’ by those leaders in Washington, DC, reference our southern border continues to be a slippery slope for those doing everything we can to protect our quality of life here in Cochise County!’ Sheriff Mark Dannels said.

‘The migrants being released are from outside Cochise County but were bussed to Cochise County, processed and then released,’ Daniels noted in a Facebook post.

‘I applaud the local [Customs and Border Protections] agents and their leadership for doing all they legally can during this on-going crisis.’

It’s unclear exactly how many migrants the processing facilities in Tucson can accommodate or how many have been transported to other locations such as Cochise County.

In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol encountered 2.2 million people crossing the border illegally. The numbers have gone down in the fiscal year ending this month — about 1.6 million so far — but that’s still high.

You have to go back decades to see comparable numbers.

From 1990 to 2006, Border Patrol encounters nearly always topped one million a year, with a peak of 1.6 million in 2000. Then the numbers began to fall. From 2010 to 2020, the agency recorded below half a million encounters a year, except for 2019 when they climbed to 859,501.

In recent years, the measures used to contain the COVID-19 pandemic skewed the count. 

The government relied heavily on a public health tool called Title 42 to quickly eject people from the country. But there was no penalty so experts say migrants returned again and again, thus pushing up the statistics. 

In the days leading up to the end of Title 42, border agents were encountering 10,000 migrants a day and at one point had 27,000 migrants in custody. But immediately after Title 42 expired, the numbers dropped sharply to about 5,000 encounters a day, and have stayed low, according to the agency’s data.

In addition to human trafficking, the cartels are thought to be behind the growing fentanyl crisis in the US. 

Fentanyl seizures at the southern U.S. border have exploded in recent years, rising from just 10.7 kg in 2014 to around 8,400 kg in 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Almost 80,000 Americans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, with fentanyl being the primary culprit.  

WHAT IS TITLE 42?

Title 42 border restrictions are a public health order that enabled U.S. authorities to turn back most migrants, including people seeking asylum from persecution.

They were introduced during the pandemic and are currently set to expire on Wednesday, after several extensions. 

But the number of migrants now attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border is at its highest level in two decades – with even larger numbers expected to arrive once the pandemic-era order is lifted.

Many of those were repeat crossers because Title 42 carries no legal or criminal consequences.

Title 42 authority has been applied unevenly across nationalities. 

Mexico has agreed to take back migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico – and limited numbers from Cuba and Nicaragua. High costs, strained diplomatic relations and other considerations have made it more difficult to remove migrants from other countries, who must be flown home.

Title 42 is one of two major surviving Trump-era policies to deter asylum at the border.

The little-used public health order that gives border authorities the ability to quickly expel nearly anyone encountered along the Southwest border.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether to allow the administration to force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court. That case originated before another Trump-appointed judge, in Amarillo, Texas. 

 

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