Report: Cartels making $13B a year from smuggling migrants into US

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer talks to migrants after they were detained and taken into custody, Sunday, March 21, 2021, in Abram-Perezville, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 9:49 AM PT – Thursday, July 28, 2022

A new report has shed light on how cartels are making billions of dollars a year smuggling migrants across the southern border. According to the New York Times report Monday, cartels are earning an estimated $13 billion annually from the illicit practice. Revenue soared from an estimated $500 million back in 2018 as cartels have ramped up their involvement in human smuggling operations over the past few years.

The billions in earnings from those activities exclude revenue from drug smuggling. According to congressional testimony from the Acting Director of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement last year, cartels are becoming more profitable as they have teams have teams specializing in logistics, transportation, surveillance, stash houses and accounting.

During the America First Agenda Summit Tuesday, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) noted the estimates cartels are making on a regional level. He said in South Texas cartels are making $150 million a week by trafficking people, also adding the current administration is turning their head on the issues.

The Biden Admin is allowing a flood of drugs to come over our borders—just this year in the Rio Grande Valley, 144lbs of fentanyl & 27,550lbs of meth have been interdicted.

These drugs are overwhelming & killing people in my state.

Biden has got to do his job & enforce the law. pic.twitter.com/XOCXXbWOAj

— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) July 26, 2022

Former acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf also commented on the Biden administrations lax border policies. His remarks come as around 1.7 million migrants and unaccompanied child have crossed the border since President Biden took office.

June border numbers are out and it’s another month over 200k. That’s the 5th month over 200k under Biden and 4th in a row. Previously, we only saw 1 month over 200k and that was in 2000. We have also passed FY21 numbers (which was historic) and we have 3 months left this FY.

— Chad Wolf (@ChadFWolf) July 16, 2022

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