Opinion

Border patrol ‘working with cartels’ to handle overwhelming migrant crossings: Former official

The southern border of the United States has become a suggestion, a line that vanishes a little more each day.

I spent three days on the front lines of the Biden administration’s illegal-immigration crisis, and found a Border Patrol that has changed from an enforcement agency to a concierge service. A pipeline of migrants, fueled by cartel coyotes and abetted by American liberal nongovernmental organizations, enter the nation in droves, and many will likely never return to the countries they left.

Groups of migrant men often wait in the bushes or under the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge until dusk to cross over. At sunset, I witnessed a group walking out of the brush and onto dirt road up to the security wall on the American side. The officer I was speaking with took off in her patrol Jeep to direct the men to a “consolidation point” away from the main road where I was standing. The immigrants trudged off, and within minutes, the patrol vehicles left to another area. No action was taken for what was likely an illegal crossing.

Even if the government wanted to secure the border, there aren’t enough officers to police the hundreds arriving each day. So the Border Patrol has made deals with the devils. Mark Morgan, former commissioner of the US Custom and Border Protection agency, said US officers now coordinate with the cartels and coyotes on where and when drop-offs will happen. In the past, large groups of illegal immigrants would cross without notice, and it would take agents two days to process at the centers.

An incomplete section of the border wall Angie Wong
In January, dozens of single, mostly male adult migrants were shuttled from a makeshift processing center in Texas to a local airport for flights to various US cities. NY Post

Morgan told me they wanted to avoid scenes like the ones of children being dropped over walls in remote areas. It may be safer, but it also makes the cartel’s job easier, and more lucrative. The cartels have taken control of our border, and we’re negotiating with the hostage-takers.

Once the migrants are processed at the consolidation centers, they are given folders color-coded to the city of their destination. I saw folders with tickets to Houston, Atlanta, Newark and JFK. The folder also contains an airline ticket, a US passport-looking booklet, cash, prepaid credit cards, travel itineraries and an English translation page. The cover of the folder says in capital letters, “PLEASE HELP ME I DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH. WHAT PLANE DO I NEED TO TAKE? THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP” with a smiley face.

Onto the planes

Each migrant also receives a set of clothing — a gray or black sweatshirt, dark jeans and black sneakers. They get a blanket, a pillow-sized bag of shelf-life food and a carry-on travel bag. Some have received cellphones.

Illegal immigrants with criminal records were released into the US and dropped off at a Texas airport, according to an ICE agent talking with Fox News.
A group of migrants stands at the Texas-Mexico border near an incomplete section of the border wall. Angie Wong

From McAllen Airport, I boarded a plane to Houston with around a dozen migrants. I watched their handlers get them past immigration and security with just a flash of documents, whereas all other passengers had to show identification.

Their handlers, I’m told, are from government-funded NGOs and churches.

There is exhaustion and fear on many of their faces, because the only real winners here are the cartels, to which so many of these illegal migrants owe money. They face years of repayments for the treacherous journey they just made.

Once they arrive at their destination cities, the handlers go missing. I followed one group of female migrants to the airport bathroom and watched as they cleaned up, changed out of the sweatshirts they were given and back into nondescript clothing.

There were colored bracelets in the trash. I was told these were given to them by their coyotes to indicate what payment they had made. The women I saw inside the bathroom were trying to lose their “markings” and possibly escape from their handlers.

Unfortunately, There was one marker that was difficult to erase. On the plane, there were several young girls heavily pregnant. One of the girls could have been my daughter’s age, preteen. She was having a difficult time and very sick disembarking off the plane.

Immigrants were sent color-coded folders, that held itineraries, funds and a sign asking for help. Angie Wong
A pregnant young woman sits at Texas’ McAllen Airport, where she and other imigrants were sent color-coded folders, that held itineraries, funds and a sign asking for help. Angie Wong
Border Patrol seems to be aware that the government is allowing illegal immigrants to cross the border, according to a leaked video. Getty Images

The exploitation continues in the US. Once they’ve been processed, a “family member” often picks up the migrant to take them to a “safe house.” The houses are anything but safe and are decrepit, uninhabitable rooms where rent goes for $100 per day and a bottle of water costs $2. Each item runs up a tab that becomes difficult to pay off. The NGO cash given to the migrants in the colored folders is immediately handed over to the host. Some of these houses are run by gangs. Some by landlords who get government subsidies.

A bleak future

The migrant begins to pay back the debt owed to get him there by working, but their debt never goes down as their living expenses continue to go up. It’s a circular payment, and the beginning of a life of servitude.

But they consider themselves the lucky ones. Some migrants, especially children, especially young girls, many forgotten or kidnapped children, do not survive the journey into the United States. Some parents who send their kids off with coyotes in hopes of receiving US paychecks back in the homeland never hear from their children again. Some are sexually assaulted. Some are used as drug mules. Border Patrol officers find body parts scattered in the fields all the time, and the large number of vultures circling the parks are the indicators.

So much of this process is play acting. Border Patrol pretends to patrol the border. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pretends to keep tabs on people coming in. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris pretend to say, “Don’t come here,” but every signal — from the wide open borders to the NGO welcome mat — says, “Come on in!”

A group of migrants walks along a dirt road between two border patrol vehicles at the Texas-Mexico border. Angie Wong
The Biden administration has told ICE not to deport anyone if being here illegally is their only crime. REUTERS

In each of those color-coded folders, there’s a letter indicating an appointment with deportation officers around three to four weeks after their arrival. How many will actually show up to that appointment? No one is keeping track of their whereabouts after they disembark from the plane. And many of the places where they are sent, including New York City, are “sanctuary cities,” meaning local authorities will not cooperate on deportations. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has told ICE not to deport anyone if being here illegally is their only crime.

‘Simply staggering’

“What I saw at the border was an invasion of our country,” said Mallory Staples, a congressional candidate from Georgia who also toured the border. “Our Border Patrol Agents and HHS have become nothing more than a government-funded travel service under this administration’s failed policies. The number of illegal immigrants coming across on a daily basis is simply staggering, and it’s created a humanitarian crisis of unbelievable proportions.”

In just a few days, I watched dozens of people going through this same pantomime, and that’s just at one stop on the vast southern border. Thousands, no, millions have arrived during the president’s first year with millions more to come. The Biden administration know it’s happening. They just don’t care.

Angie Wong at the border. Angie Wong
A group of migrants stands at the Texas-Mexico border. Angie Wong
Vice President Kamala Harris memorably told migrants considering making the treacherous journey across the Mexican-US border, “do not come, do not come.” EPA

Biden builds barrier – just don’t call it a wall

Build that . . . rail. 

Although he halted the construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall in the first month of his administration, President Biden has continued the wall-building efforts under a different name. 

Instead of a “wall,” it’s now called a “rail.” 

Biden restored nearly $1 billion for California’s high-speed rail and wants to dramatically increase funding for passenger rail networks. AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s wall rose as high as 30 feet, while Biden’s rail is six feet tall. At Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Texas (right), the contrast between the two is evident. Retired Navy Rear Adm. Chuck Kubic’s construction company was commissioned for the two structures by the two presidents. 

In some places, finishing the wall at lower heights was necessary to make sure it was structurally sound. But the reason for the two heights is strictly political. The Democratic administration doesn’t want to look like it’s building a wall that might actually work. 

Angie Wong is the vice president of BlakPac, which supports black, Hispanic and Asian conservative candidates.