House Homeland GOP Report On Cartels

DHS SECRETARY
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS
HAS EMBOLDENED CARTELS,
CRIMINALS, AND AMERICA’S
ENEMIES
PHASE 2 INTERIM REPORT
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY
MAJORITY REPORT
SEPTEMBER 7, 2023
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: Mayorkas Has Empowered the Worst Actors Around the Globe….…..
Section 1: How Cartels Are Taking Advantage of Open-Borders Policies………………..
• Understanding the Cartels
• Cartels Now Control the Southwest Border
• How the Cartels Seized Control of the Southwest Border
• Open Borders Equal Record Profits and Expanded Arsenals for the Cartels
Section 2: The Cartel-Crime Nexus at the Border and in the United States…….………
• The Inhumane and Destabilizing Tactics of the Cartels
o Debt Bondage and Coercion—A Horrific New Phenomenon
o Complex Human Trafficking/Smuggling Operations
o Stash Houses
o Drone Operations and Surveillance
• The Cartel Connection to Crime at the Border and in Our Communities
o Drug Trafficking
o Violence
o Human Trafficking
o Organized Retail Theft
o Disorder in Border Towns
• The Connection Between the Cartels, Gangs, and Open Borders
• MS-13—The World’s Most Violent Gang Thrives on Mayorkas’ Watch
Section 3: The Surge of National Security Threats Across the Border……………………
• Individuals on the Terror Watchlist Coming Across in Record Numbers
• Potential National Security Threats Arriving from Other Nations
Section 4: Irresponsible Use of Federal Law Enforcement Personnel……………………
• Redeploying Border Patrol Agents from the Northern Border
• Not-So-Friendly Skies—Reassigning Air Marshals to Administrative Duty
• Diverting HSI Away from Federal Investigations
• DHS Requesting Volunteers from Federal Workforce
Conclusion: Mayorkas Has Ceded Control of the Southwest Border to Cartels,
National Security Threats……….
2
INTRODUCTION
Introduction: Mayorkas Has Empowered the Worst Actors

Around the Globe
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ open-borders policies
have empowered and emboldened some of the most vicious, ruthless, and savage individuals and
groups in the world. Whether it is transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) like the cartels
and human smuggling organizations in the Western Hemisphere, potential national security
threats from countries who sponsor terrorism, or those coming from major state adversaries like
China and Russia, the wide-open Southwest border has given America’s enemies all over the
globe an opportunity to infiltrate the homeland—an opportunity too good to pass up.
This report will demonstrate the massive threats posed by these groups and individuals to
Americans’ safety and security. It will also highlight how the cartels have seized unprecedented
control of the Southwest border to smuggle record amounts of illicit drugs and illegal aliens into
the United States, pocketing historic profits in the process. Finally, the report will document the
historic increase of individuals apprehended at the Southwest border who are being flagged as
potential national security threats, and the inept use of federal personnel to respond to the crisis.
3
SECTION 1: HOW CARTELS ARE TAKING
ADVANTAGE OF OPEN-BORDERS POLICIES
Section 1: How Cartels Are Taking Advantage of Open-Borders

Policies
Understanding the Cartels
The cartels are the most vicious, evil organizations in the Western Hemisphere,1 with operations
that include a number of illicit activities—drug trafficking, human smuggling, and human
trafficking chief among them. According to one senior official with the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), they are “ruthless and violent global criminal enterprises, with members,
associates, facilitators and brokers in all 50 states and in at least 100 countries throughout the
world. The cartels use treachery and deceit to drive addiction and deaths in our country.”2
Moreover, the DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment highlights the cartels’ connection to
“independent drug trafficking organizations” and “transnational gangs, U.S.-based street gangs,
prison gangs, and Asian money laundering organizations (MLOs).”3 These groups employ brutal
violence to exert their influence in Mexico. For example, in August 2023, members of the Jalisco
Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG) lured, abducted, and later beheaded five young men in the
Mexican state of Jalisco after the men reportedly refused to be recruited into the cartel’s ranks.4
These groups maintain substantial control in Mexico, with the two largest and most powerful
cartels—Sinaloa and CJNG—actively operating in the majority of Mexico’s 32 states.5 The cartels
are the leading suppliers of drugs to the United States,6 with Sinaloa and CJNG responsible for
most of the illicit fentanyl entering the country.7
Americans must understand the sheer control these organizations exert over the flow of illegal
aliens and illicit drugs across the Southwest border, and how they profit from it all. The cartels
control smuggling routes throughout Mexico and exert near-complete control on the movement
of individuals through that country, particularly at and near the Southwest border.8
Before the cartels increased their control of the Southwest border, aliens could often cross by
themselves to complete their journey to the United States. Now, it is nearly impossible to cross
1
“Cuccinelli: Cartels are the most evil, vicious people in western hemisphere,” Fox Business, YouTube video, April 1, 2021,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sidPMxP4GtU.
2
“Protecting the U.S. Homeland: Fighting the Flow of Fentanyl from the Southwest Border,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video, 50:06, July
12, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/L0EurNtLz0M?feature=share&t=3006.
3
U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, DEA-DCT-DIR-008-21, March 2021, 69,
https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/DIR-008-21%202020%20National%20Drug%20Threat%20Assessment_WEB.pdf.
4
Lawrence Richard, Five students beat, murdered by Mexican cartel in horrifically graphic video were lured by job offer: report,” Fox News, August 18, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/world/five-students-beat-murdered-mexican-cartel-horrifically-graphic-video-lured-job-offer-report.
5
U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, DEA-DCT-DIR-008-21, March 2021, 70-71,
6
“Mexico’s Long War: Drugs, Crime, and the Cartels,” The Council on Foreign Relations, September 7, 2022, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-long-
war-drugs-crime-and-cartels.
7
Katie Cooper, “Briefing on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Countering Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Hearing,” The Wilson Center, February 24, 2023,
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/briefing-senate-foreign-relations-committee-countering-illicit-fentanyl-trafficking-
hearing#:~:text=Both%20cartels%20in%20Mexico%20are,coming%20into%20the%20United%20States.
8
See U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Minority, Biden’s Border Crisis: Examining Policies That Encourage Illegal Migration, 117th
Cong., 2nd sess., June 2022, 28-29, https://www.risch.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/5/0/5082e293-b23d-4726-a581-
dc428517a843/9FB8D6A16D2415A013D48761339299C6.bidens-border-crisis.pdf; and Josh Jones, “Cartels and Their Cruelty Are the Crisis at the Border,”
Texas Public Policy Foundation, March 15, 2021, https://www.texaspolicy.com/cartels-and-their-cruelty-are-the-crisis-at-the-border/.
4
without paying some sort of price to the cartels. Former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott
answered affirmatively when asked by one media outlet in February 2023 if “every single person”
crossing illegally has had “some sort of contact with the cartels,” further explaining, “That hasn’t
always been that way, by the way.”9 Before smugglers controlled the Rio Grande River, some
individuals crossed back and forth daily, according to Timothy Tubbs, a retired agent with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).10
The New York Times’ Miriam Jordan put it succinctly in a July 2022 report, writing, “Migrant
smuggling on the U.S. southern border has evolved over the past 10 years from a scattered
network of freelance ‘coyotes’ into a multi-billion-dollar international business controlled by
organized crime, including some of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels.”11
Now, almost anyone who crosses the Southwest border, including at ports of entry, has done so
only because they have first paid a cartel, or agreed, knowingly or not, to enter into months or
years of debt to the organization upon arriving in the United States. Jason Owens, then-chief
patrol agent for the Del Rio Sector, told the House Committee on Homeland Security in May
2023 that the criminal organizations “keep a death grip on anything that comes across the border
illicitly, because they want their cut. They want their money, and so they’re going to do things to
dissuade individuals from doing what you’re saying, crossing on their own—to include violent
tactics against them.”12 In his February 2023 testimony before the House Committee on
Oversight and Reform, John Modlin, chief patrol agent for the Tucson Sector, said, “What I see in
Tucson Sector, in my experience, is that no one crosses the border in Tucson Sector without going
through the cartels.”13 He later told the House Committee on Homeland Security in July 2023,
“[N]ow nobody crosses without paying the cartels. … It’s all controlled by them.”14
The money these organizations have made has only increased their influence and command over
the Southwest border. Former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Mark
Morgan pointed out in early 2022 that every individual who crosses the border illegally “paid the
cartels. That illegal immigration is fueling and financing the cartels’ criminal operations. It’s
making them stronger. And it’s also enabling their criminal schemes in other areas, including
drugs, to expand.”15
Cartels Now Control the Southwest Border

Numerous law enforcement veterans, local officials, and national security experts agree that the
cartels have seized an unprecedented level of control at the Southwest border. This control
9
Virginia Allen, “Former Border Patrol Chief Opens Up About the Horrifying Power Cartels Wield Around the Rio Grande,” The Daily Signal, February 10,
2023, https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/10/no-one-crosses-unlawfully-from-mexico-without-working-with-cartels-former-border-patrol-chief-says/.
10
Miriam Jordan, “Smuggling Migrants at the Border Now a Billion-Dollar Business,” The New York Times, July 25, 2022,
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/25/us/migrant-smuggling-evolution.html.
11
Ibid.
12
Jason Owens, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 53-54, May 5, 2023.
13
“On The Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol Agents,” House Oversight and Accountability Committee, YouTube video, 36:24,
February 7, 2023, https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/on-the-front-lines-of-the-border-crisis-a-hearing-with-chief-patrol-agents/.
14
John Modlin, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 64, July 26, 2023.
15
Maggie Hroncich, “Officials Assail Biden Inaction: ‘Mexican Cartels Basically Control Our Border Now,’” The Daily Signal, March 15, 2022,
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/03/15/officials-assail-biden-inaction-mexican-cartels-basically-control-our-border-now/.
5
represents a significant challenge to CBP’s national security mission, the safety of American
communities, and the sovereignty of the United States.
Most notably, in a March 2023 hearing held by the House Committee on Homeland Security,
then-Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz contradicted Mayorkas’ prior claims that DHS has
operational control of the Southwest border.16 During the hearing, Ortiz testified to Chairman
Mark Green, R-Tenn., that DHS did not have operational control of the border,17 and that five of
the Border Patrol’s nine sectors along the Southwest border were under tremendous strain.18
During a July 2023 hearing, the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Border Security and
Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., asked witnesses if the cartels
have gained “unprecedented access and networking within the United States of America.” Derek
Maltz, former special agent in charge of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, and Jaeson Jones,
a former captain in the Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Intelligence and
Counterterrorism Division, with years of experience in combatting the cartels, answered in the
affirmative.19 They further confirmed that cartel control increased “incredibly” during Mayorkas’
tenure, with Maltz later testifying the cartels “have total control.”20
Former Border Patrol Chief Scott stated in February 2023, “[The cartels] control the border
today. And they control the border today under the Biden administration because of this mass
migration to a level that they’ve never had. And I mean…they don’t worry hardly at all about what
they’re trying to get in because their success rate is so high.”21
Border correspondent Ali Bradley reported in February of this year that, based on Border Patrol
assessments, the “cartels are controlling operations at the southern border as they force migrants
across the Rio Grande at gunpoint and hold asylum seekers in stash houses…The cartel sees what
is happening on the U.S. side and takes advantage of the lack of resources, pushing people and
drugs through the holes while Border Patrol is busy processing…”22 Bradley further explained that
Border Patrol officials believe the cartels “are always one step ahead” of law enforcement.23
Other officials have echoed this conclusion. Former DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon
told a forum in Washington, D.C., in March 2022, “Mexican cartels basically control our border
now.”24 Morgan and former DHS Acting Deputy Chief of Staff Lora Ries released a statement in
September 2022 agreeing with this assessment, stating, “The drug cartels now have operational
16
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, 117th Cong., 2nd sess., April 28,
2022, 119-120, https://www.congress.gov/117/chrg/CHRG-117hhrg49702/CHRG-117hhrg49702.pdf.
17
“User Clip: Chief Ortiz Admits No Operational Control over Border,” C-SPAN video, March 15, 2023, https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5062135/user-clip-
chief-ortiz-admits-operational-control-border.
18
Anna Giaritelli, “Biden Border Chief in Hot Seat over Whether US-Mexico Boundary Is Secure,” The Washington Examiner, March 15, 2023,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/border-chief-hot-seat-texas-gop-hearing-mexico.
19
“Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video, 1:21:01, July 19, 2023,
https://www.youtube.com/live/kva0HOb1TUg?feature=share&t=4861.
20
Ibid, 1:34:18.
21
Virginia Allen, “Former Border Patrol Chief Opens Up About the Horrifying Power Cartels Wield Around the Rio Grande,” The Daily Signal, February 10,
2023, https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/10/no-one-crosses-unlawfully-from-mexico-without-working-with-cartels-former-border-patrol-chief-says/.
22
Ali Bradley, “Cartels Controlling Migrant Activity at Southern Border,” NewsNation, February 6, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-
news/immigration/border-coverage/cartels-migrant-activity-southern-border/.
23
Ibid.
24
Maggie Hroncich, “Officials Assail Biden Inaction: ‘Mexican Cartels Basically Control Our Border Now,’” The Daily Signal, March 15, 2022,
https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/03/15/officials-assail-biden-inaction-mexican-cartels-basically-control-our-border-now/.
6
control of our southern border,”25 while Jonathan Lines, supervisor of Yuma County, Arizona,
recently described the cartels as a major threat to communities like his—“Unless this situation
changes and we take back control from the cartels, for the trafficking coming across our border, it
will only get worse.”26
Law enforcement officials released photos in August 2023 of a group of suspected cartel gunmen armed with rifles
and body armor caught on camera crossing illegally into Texas in the Rio Grande Valley region. In June 2023, the
Border Patrol’s chief patrol agent for the Laredo Sector told the House Committee on Homeland Security that
agents frequently encounter armed human smugglers in his sector.27 Lieutenant Chris Olivarez of Texas DPS said
in August 2023 that incursions by armed cartel operatives have become “a more common occurrence.”28 (Source:
Fox News)
The assessment of cartel control at the Southwest border is bipartisan. Independent Arizona Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema said in May 2023, in the context of the Biden administration’s ending of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Title 42 public health order, “The cartels are
incredibly well-resourced and they’re very strategic, so they’re pushing people through different
parts of the border at different times with different prices for different purposes, and they’re
controlling what’s happening on the southern border, not the United States government.”29
25
“Heritage Border Experts on Texas Designating Cartels as Terrorist Organizations: States Should Follow Texas’ Lead on Border Security,” The Heritage
Foundation, September 22, 2022, https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-border-experts-texas-designating-cartels-terrorist-organizations-states-should.
26
Megan Myers, “Border under control of cartels, not the US, Yuma residents say as gangs rake in billions off human smuggling,” Fox News, January 18, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/us/border-control-cartels-us-yuma-residents-say-gangs-rake-billions-human-smuggling.
27
Joel Martinez, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 122, June 1, 2023.
28
Ali Bradley [@AliBradleyTV], “I talked with @TxDPS @LtChrisOlivarez after two CDN cartel members were apprehended in Texas — He tells me cartel
operatives are breaching our southern border on a daily basis— Saying state and federal partnerships are crucial in preventing those individuals from getting into
our communities.,” Tweet, Twitter, August 16, 2023, https://twitter.com/AliBradleyTV/status/1691981814225944640.
29
Kevin Stone, “Sen. Kyrsten Sinema blasts Biden administration over handling of Title 42 end,” KTAR News, May 11, 2023,
https://ktar.com/story/5494615/sen-kyrsten-sinema-blasts-biden-administration-over-handling-of-title-42-end/.
7
This malign presence is not just confined to the Southwest border. As one West Texas sheriff put
it during a recent roundtable with the House Committee on Homeland Security, “As far north as
we are from the border—the cartels are here. They’re everywhere.”30
The American people agree with the judgment of these law enforcement and national security
professionals. According to a poll released in September 2022, 61 percent of registered voters
believe the cartels possess more control of the Southwest border than the federal government.31
How the Cartels Seized Control of the Southwest Border

Multiple factors have enabled the cartels’ unprecedented seizure of control at the Southwest
border—and they can all be traced back to President Joe Biden and Mayorkas’ open-borders
policies.
First, Mayorkas and Biden’s reversal of the effective border security policies of the previous
administration, as well as the host of policies they have subsequently implemented, have
encouraged millions of individuals to make the journey to the Southwest border in hopes of being
released into the United States. The Committee’s Phase 1 interim report on Mayorkas’ dereliction
of duty presented substantial evidence of the consequences of these policies in explicit detail.32
The massive increase in the number of people now traveling up through Mexico on their way to
the Southwest border represents a historic business opportunity for the cartels, as each person is
someone off whom they can profit.
Second, the unmitigated tide of individuals flooding across the Southwest border under
Mayorkas’ policies has forced Border Patrol agents to focus their efforts on processing,
transporting, and releasing unprecedented numbers of illegal aliens, rather than patrolling the
border.33
This has left broad stretches of the border open to exploitation by the cartels, who not only take
advantage of areas where agents are no longer present, but often send across groups of aliens in
places where agents are in order to tie up Border Patrol resources. While those agents are
responding, the cartels will then push drugs or other groups of aliens across in another location.34
This process—“flooding the zones,” as one expert has called it35—has been repeated day in and
30
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Majority, Texas Ranchers, Law Enforcement, and State Officials Share the Truth
on Mayorkas’ Border Crisis With Homeland Security Republicans, 118th Cong., 1st sess., March 16, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/texas-ranchers-law-
enforcement-and-state-officials-share-the-truth-on-mayorkas-border-crisis-with-homeland-security-republicans/.
31
Diana Glebova, “Majority of Americans Think Cartels Control Border More than U.S. Government: Poll,” National Review, September 22, 2022,
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/majority-of-americans-think-cartels-control-border-more-than-u-s-government-poll/.
32
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Majority, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ Dereliction of Duty, Phase 1
Interim Report, 118th Cong., 1st sess., July 19, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Phase-One-Report.pdf.
33
“Full Committee Field Hearing: ‘Failure By Design: Examining Secretary Mayorkas’ Border Crisis,’” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video,
2:46:10 March 15, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1ETzh3AUA&t=9960s.
34
“On The Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol Agents,” House Oversight and Accountability Committee, YouTube video, 29:30,
February 7, 2023, https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/on-the-front-lines-of-the-border-crisis-a-hearing-with-chief-patrol-agents/.
35
8
day out ever since Mayorkas implemented his open-borders policies, a fact confirmed by senior
Border Patrol officials.
Gregory Bovino, then-chief patrol agent for the El Centro Sector, confirmed this tactic to the
House Committee on Homeland Security in July 2023, stating, “So, what in fact happens, there is
a large group [that] comes across or a group comes across, gives up to Border Patrol agents, and,
as Border Patrol agents are busy dealing with that group that had given up, the gotaways come
around the periphery.”36 In May 2023, two other chief patrol agents confirmed the cartels’ use of
this tactic in interviews with Committee staff.37
Local law enforcement officials have documented this tactic, as well. According to Sheriff Leon
Wilmot in Yuma County, Arizona:
“So, what the cartels do is they tie up Border Patrol resources by sending across large
groups of ‘give ups’ … so they can actually funnel in those that are smuggling narcotics.
And they are actually dropping off certain groups out 30 miles away from civilization and
having them call 911, so that ties up our resources, and that’s why we’re seeing such a large
amount of fentanyl throughout the whole of the U.S. We’ve never seen it this bad. Human
life is nothing to them. It’s a commodity…”38
Open Borders Equal Record Profits and Expanded Arsenals for the
Cartels
The sheer volume of people and drugs the cartels are moving across the border has generated
historic profit margins for these criminal organizations. Indeed, the cartels are no longer just
“drug cartels,” as human smuggling and trafficking have become central to their business
model.39 Per the New York Times, the cartels may have made as much as $13 billion just from
human smuggling in 2021,40 a year in which CBP recorded around 1.5 million encounters at the
Southwest border.41
In Fiscal Year (FY)22, encounters jumped to 2.37 million, and through July 2023, CBP was on
pace to record a similar number in FY23.42 In an interview with House Committee on Homeland
Security staff in May 2023, Owens said that his sector intelligence unit ascertained the cartels
were making more than $30 million per week from human smuggling just in the Del Rio Sector
alone, for a total of around $1.5 billion a year.43
36
Gregory Bovino, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 174, July 12, 2023.
37
See Jason Owens, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 51-52, May 5, 2023; and Aaron Heitke, Transcribed Interview
with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 40-41, May 9, 2023.
38
America’s Newsroom [@AmericaNewsroom], “CARTEL CRISIS: How Mexican Cartels Are Exploiting Biden’s Open Border Policy @BillHemmer –
Reporting Live from Yuma, AZ – Is Joined by Two County Officials Who Claim the Border Is Under Control of the Cartels, Not the US. ‘We Have Never Seen
It This Bad.,’” Tweet, Twitter, February 14, 2023, https://twitter.com/AmericaNewsroom/status/1625511036227842048.
39
40
Ibid.
41
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, Southwest Land Border Encounters, August 18, 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-land-border-encounters.
42
Ibid.
43
Jason Owens, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 52, May 5, 2023.
9
Also to be factored into the cartels’ balance sheet are the historic number of known gotaways—at
least 1.5 million since FY21,44 among whom are often previous deportees and individuals with
criminal records who “pay premium rates” to avoid apprehension.45 Aaron Heitke, then-chief
patrol agent for the San Diego Sector, confirmed this to the House Committee on Homeland
Security in May 2023, saying, “From what we have gathered from people…it costs more to go
through an area that has a better chance of getting away.”46
Then-Border Patrol Chief Ortiz told the Committee in March 2023 that the true number of
gotaways—known and undetected—could be 20 percent higher than the reported 1.5 million.47
These numbers are truly historic. Through August 2023, the Border Patrol had recorded
approximately 590,000 known gotaways in FY23, putting the agency on pace to record more than
640,000 gotaways this fiscal year.48 In FY22, known gotaways totaled around 599,000, and more
than 389,000 in FY21.49
All three totals far exceed annual known gotaways from the 10 years prior to the Biden
administration. In fact, the number of gotaways in just the El Paso Sector in the first nine months
of FY23—166,34450—exceeded total known gotaways across all nine Border Patrol sectors every
year between FY10-20 except one, as the DHS numbers below show.
The number of known gotaways has exploded on Mayorkas’ watch, averaging well over 500,000 per year, and
dwarfing known gotaway numbers from recent years. (Source: DHS 2021 Border Security Metrics Report)
Further, the approximate 1.5 million known gotaways from FY21-23 exceeds those from FY10-20
combined (1.29 million), according to the department’s 2021 Border Security Metrics Report.51
44
MaryAnn Martinez, “1.5M ‘gotaways’ have slipped into the US under Biden — three times as many as during 3 years of Trump,” New York Post, May 15,
2023, https://nypost.com/2023/05/15/1-5m-gotaways-have-slipped-into-the-us-under-biden-three-times-as-many-as-during-3-years-of-trump/.
45
Nick Miroff, “Border Officials Say More People Are Sneaking Past Them as Crossings Soar and Agents Are Overwhelmed,” The Washington Post, April 2,
2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/got-aways-border/2021/04/01/14258a1e-9302-11eb-9af7-fd0822ae4398_story.html.
46
Aaron Heitke, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 43, May 9, 2023.
47
1:08:17, March 15, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/7Z1ETzh3AUA?feature=share&t=4089.
48
Bob Price and Randy Clark, “SOURCE: 590K Migrant Got-Aways This Year — Exceeds Last Year Same Period,” Breitbart, September 1, 2023,
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/09/01/source-590k-migrant-got-aways-this-year-exceeds-last-year-same-period/.
49
MaryAnn Martinez and Stephanie Pagones, “530K Illegal Migrants Sneaked into US Since October: CBP,” New York Post, May 10, 2023,
https://nypost.com/2023/05/10/530k-illegal-migrants-have-border-agents-since-start-of-2025/.
50
Anthony Scott Good, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 73-74, June 29, 2023.
51
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Homeland Security Border Security Metrics Report: 2021, April 27, 2022, 16,
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/2022_0427_plcy_border_security_metrics_report_FY2021_%282020_data%29.pdf.
10
Even in 2019, with the short-lived spike in illegal crossings, known gotaways remained relatively
stable compared to historic trends.52
Texas DPS arrested 14 illegal aliens dressed in camouflage attempting to evade apprehension in April 2023. They
would have entered as gotaways if not for the efforts of law enforcement. (Source: Texas DPS)
The massive increase in gotaways is just more fuel on the fire of the cartels’ profits. Ultimately, as
the number of illegal aliens—gotaways or not—being smuggled or trafficked across the border
continues to rise, so do the cartels’ profits.
In 2018, then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen estimated the cartels made at least $500 million
annually from human smuggling.53 In August 2021, John Condon, HSI acting assistant director of
international operations, told Congress the number had risen to somewhere between $2-$6
billion, and potentially more.54 In February 2021 alone, the Border Patrol estimated the cartels
made $14 million per day smuggling illegal aliens across the border.55
Crossing the border illegally is an expensive proposition. In 2021, Newsweek reported Border
Patrol sources saying that Mexicans could expect to pay several hundred to several thousand
dollars, while Central Americans could pay between $8,000-$10,000, and those from South
American nations could pay upwards of $15,000.56 Another 2021 report, this one from CNN,
52
Ibid.
53
Stephen Dinan, “Kirstjen Nielsen: Cartels Make $500 Million a Year from Smuggling Illegals into U.S.,” The Washington Times, May 15, 2018,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/15/kirstjen-nielsen-cartels-make-500-million-year-smu/.
54
Stephen Dinan, “DHS: Cartels Earn up to $6 Billion a Year from Smuggling Migrants,” The Washington Times, August 4, 2021,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/aug/4/dhs-cartels-earn-6-billion-year-smuggling-illegal-/.
55
William La Jeunesse, “US-Mexico Border Traffickers Earned as Much as $14M a Day Last Month: Sources,” Fox News, March 22, 2021,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-mexico-border-traffickers-million-february.
56
Alex Rouhandeh, “Human Smugglers Charging Up To $15,000 Per Person for U.S. Border Crossing,” Newsweek, June 3, 2021,
https://www.newsweek.com/human-smugglers-charging-15000-per-person-us-border-crossing-1597043.
11
found that illegal aliens from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador paid smugglers an average
of $7,500 to make it to the border.57 Additionally, press reports quoting individuals making the
journey show many make various payments to different groups along the way in order to traverse
particular sections of the route, or simply to pay off robbers or gangs.58
It is also instructive to note the higher fees the cartels charge individuals from nations like China.
One report found that three Chinese nationals who entered in February 2023 each paid
$35,000.59 Texas officials say the $35,000 number for Chinese nationals is a baseline and may go
as high as $50,000.60 The Border Patrol’s Joel Martinez, then-acting chief patrol agent for the
Laredo Sector, told the House Committee on Homeland Security in June 2023 that he had heard
reports of Chinese nationals being charged $60,000 by the cartels.61
The math gives Americans a sense of the potential scope of cartel profits under Mayorkas’
policies. If every Chinese national apprehended illegally crossing the Southwest border in FY23—
the Border Patrol recorded 17,678 apprehensions of Chinese nationals through July 202362—paid
the cartels $50,000 to cross the border, that would represent roughly $880 million in revenue. At
$35,000 per Chinese national, the total would be around $618 million. Of course, 17,678
apprehensions are a mere drop in the bucket compared to almost 5.8 million Southwest border
encounters recorded since Mayorkas took office and the more-than 1.5 million known gotaways,
making total cartel profits a troubling figure to imagine. As Jones said in July 2021, “I can
without any doubt tell you that the profits they are making today are like nothing we have seen
prior. This is a major revenue stream.”63
Contrary to Mayorkas’ assertions,64 his new policy that allows otherwise inadmissible aliens to
request an appointment at an official port of entry via the CBP One mobile app is failing to stem
the record profits flowing to the cartels. This is because individuals must still pay to get through
Mexico to the Southwest border, whether they choose to cross between the ports of entry, or make
use of Mayorkas’ parole pathway at a port of entry. According to Jessica Vaughan, director of
policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), in her testimony before the House
Committee on Homeland Security on July 19, 2023:
“Biden officials have claimed that that CBP One policy is a great success because the illegal
migrants no longer have to do business with the cartels. We should be skeptical of this
claim. First of all, CBP One can only be used from locations in northern Mexico and the
57
Catherine Shoichet, “Central American Migrants Paid $2.2 Billion Trying to Reach the US,” CNN, November 24, 2021,
https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/24/us/central-american-migration-costs/index.html.
58
Nick Paton Walsh, et. al., “On one of the world’s most dangerous migrant routes, a cartel makes millions off the American dream,” CNN, April 17, 2023,
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/15/americas/darien-gap-migrants-colombia-panama-whole-story-cmd-intl/index.html.
59
Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin, “Border Patrol Apprehensions of Chinese Nationals at Southern Border up 800%: Source,” Fox News, February 9, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-apprehensions-chinese-nationals-southern-border-800-source.
60
State of Texas, Office of the Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, Operation Lone Star Turns Back Over 30,000 Illegal Immigrants, March 24, 2023,
https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/operation-lone-star-turns-back-over-30000-illegal-immigrants.
61
62
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, Nationwide Encounters, August 18, 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/nationwide-encounters.
63
Karol Suárez, “Cartels reap growing profits in the smuggling of migrants across the US-Mexico border,” Louisville Courier Journal, July 1, 2021,
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/investigations/2021/07/01/mexican-cartels-fuel-immigration-crisis-at-us-border/5290082001/.
64
“Oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” House Judiciary GOP, YouTube video, 1:58:02, July 26, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/live/cAhJdIQy1IA?feature=share&t=7082.
12
migrants still have to get there, and for most, that still means paying a cartel-approved
smuggler, and the CBP One appointment itself turns out to be yet another opportunity for
them to extort the migrants.”65
Subsequent reporting demonstrates that the cartels are continuing to rake in record profits.
According to media analysis of the data:
“Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has characterized the decline as a blow to the smuggling
cartels that control the market. Yet those who make the attempt are paying more,
according to The Washington Times’ database of smuggling cases, which tracks payments
in near-real time and which suggests that the cartels aren’t taking as big of a hit as Mr.
Mayorkas would like.”66
The Times noted, “A Mexican crossing into the Laredo area of Texas is paying an average of
$9,500, up from about $7,400 earlier this year, before the end of the Title 42 border pandemic
expulsion policy in May. A Mexican sneaking into Arizona is paying an average of nearly $10,000,
up from about $9,300.”67
And, of course, as reported by the Washington Examiner in August 2023, the cartels have
hijacked the app through the use of virtual private networks (VPN) to help aliens from all over the
globe request appointments through the app, getting around the requirement that an individual
be in northern Mexico before submitting such a request. Indeed, cartels are now offering this as a
paid service, meaning they are actually using DHS’ own policies and procedures to expand their
profit margins.68
Lucrative drug operations add even more revenue. A report published by ICE as far back as 2010
estimated cartels made nearly $30 billion on drug trafficking,69 though more recent
comprehensive estimates are hard to come by. With the massive increase in the production of
fentanyl and the favorable profit margin it provides,70 one can only imagine the cartels’ revenues
from trafficking illicit drugs today.
And many of those dollars go right back to expanding the cartels’ operations, including building
up their massive paramilitary capabilities. Journalist Todd Bensman, who is also a former
member of Texas DPS’ Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, wrote in a recent op-ed that
65
“Biden and Mayorkas’ Open Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video, 37:22, July 19, 2023,
66
Stephen Dinan, “Smuggling cartels raking in cash despite lower border numbers,” The Washington Times, July 30, 2023,
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jul/30/smuggling-cartels-still-raking-cash-despite-lower-/.
67
Ibid.
68
Anna Giaritelli, “Mexican cartels exploit US government's CBP One app,” The Washington Examiner, August 4, 2023,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/mexican-cartels-exploit-cbp-one-app.
69
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Government of Mexico,
Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Publico and Unidad De Inteligencia Financiera (UIF), United States of America-Mexico Bi-National Criminal Proceeds Study,
June 2010, 2, https://www.ice.gov/doclib/cornerstone/pdf/cps-study.pdf.
70
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, Prepared Testimony of the U.S.
Department of Justice, Anne Milgram, Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration for A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Funding Requests for
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 118th Cong., 1st sess., May 10, 2023, 5,
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Administrator_written%20statement_Senate%20CJS%20hearing.pdf.
13
there is “plenty of evidence to suggest” the cartels have acquired the capability to “outgun” the
Mexican government:
“It’s impossible to know how much military hardware the revenues from the Biden border
crisis have paid for, but the cartels are clearly reinvesting their massive profits. … These
are armies, with highly trained special forces units, supported by professional intelligence
operations and run by warlords…I’m not alone in my estimation that Biden’s cartel-
enriching mass migration crisis poses serious threats to important U.S. national interests,
including many that are rarely discussed out loud, such as Mexican trade.”71
Bensman also highlighted several recent seizures by the American and Mexican governments of
military assets the cartels acquired or attempted to acquire. The sheer firepower wielded by these
organizations is staggering:
“In March 2022, inside four houses controlled by a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel in the
northern State of Sonora, the Mexican army recovered 2.8 million rounds of ammunition,
89 hand grenades, 20 machine guns, six .50 caliber sniper rifles, more than 150 handguns
and automatic rifles, and bulletproof vests.
“In May 2022, U.S. authorities broke up a Cartel del Noreste scheme to buy $500,000
worth of machine guns, grenades, and rocket-propelled launchers to be smuggled south
from the U.S. into Mexico.
“An August 2022 report showed that the state of Tamaulipas seized 257 shop-built
armored ‘narco-tanks’ from the cartels in recent years, so-called ‘monsters’ made of semis,
SUVs, or pickup trucks encased in thick steel with machine-gun ports. Video shows well-
kitted masked cartel soldiers filling them.”72
The cartels have even made use of advanced submarines, known as “narco-submarines,” to traffic
drugs into the United States. According to one report, “The technology has progressed in recent
years and has become a significant force in the international drug trade.”73 In May 2023, one
prominent Colombian TCO operative—the “Prince of Semi-Submersibles”—was sentenced to
more than 20 years in prison for smuggling thousands of pounds of drugs into the United States
via these submarines.74 According to federal prosecutors, the organization “primarily sent vessels
such as self-propelled semi-submersible vessels to Guatemala, where the cocaine was then
smuggled over the Guatemala/Mexican border and then into the United States.”75
71
Todd Bensman, “Biden's border crisis is fueling growing cartel armies - now armed to the teeth and rivaling Mexico's military, warns TODD BENSMAN... so
why is no one talking about this threat to American interests?,” The Daily Mail, December 22, 2022, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
11563659/Mexicos-cartels-getting-rich-powerful-Bidens-mass-migration-crisis-TODD-BENSMAN.html.
72
Ibid.
73
Michael James, “Colombian 'Prince of Submersibles' gets 20 years for smuggling kilos of coke into US with narco-submarines,” USA Today, May 8, 2023,
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/05/08/colombian-drug-lord-gets-20-years-for-smuggling-coke-into-us-via-narco-subs/70197761007/.
74
Ibid.
75
U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida, Colombia’s “Prince Of Semi-Submersibles” Sentenced To Over 20 Years In
Federal Prison For Smuggling Thousands Of Kilograms Of Cocaine, May 8, 2023, https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/colombias-prince-semi-submersibles-
sentenced-over-20-years-federal-prison-smuggling.
14
SECTION 2: THE CARTEL-CRIME NEXUS AT
THE BORDER AND IN THE UNITED STATES
Section 2: The Cartel-Crime Nexus at the Border and in the

United States
These criminal operations are not limited simply to Mexico and border states, however. Indeed,
the cartels are increasingly active in communities across the United States. As Mayorkas and
Biden’s border crisis has continued to expand, so has the reach and influence of these groups. The
DEA’s most recent assessment in FY19 showed major Mexican cartels already operating in at least
60 American cities.76 Since the publication of that assessment, “the cartels have expanded to all
50 states, battling for control of the nation, coast to coast.”77 This section of the report will detail
the innovative tactics being used by the cartels on Mayorkas’ watch, and the criminal activity in
which they are engaged in American communities.
The Inhumane and Destabilizing Tactics of the Cartels

Debt Bondage and Coercion—A Horrific New Phenomenon: Increasingly, vulnerable individuals
coming to the border are not just being forced to pay one-time fees, which perhaps constitute
their entire life savings, in order to enter the United States. In many cases, they are being further
76
U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, DEA-DCT-DIR-008-21, March 2021, 69,
77
“NewsNation exclusive: Deadly drug cartels in America | CUOMO,” NewsNation, February 6, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/newsnation-
exclusive-deadly-drug-cartels-in-america-cuomo/8367575/.
15
exploited and forced to serve the cartels and smuggling organizations—a phenomenon known as
“debt bondage.”
In its 2021 Border Security Metrics report, DHS documented an increase in “alternative forms of
payment in exchange for passage, including migrants being required to participate in smuggling
controlled substances or other illicit items across the border or to work off debts upon arrival in
the United States, as well as reports of harsh negotiations concerning payment plans with family
members.”78 In other words, they pay their debt by facilitating and committing crimes against
Americans inside the United States.
In July 2023, the San Francisco Chronicle corroborated this finding as part of an in-depth
investigation into the city’s drug trade. The report included interviews with numerous dealers
who had arrived from other countries and were now selling drugs supplied by the cartels.
According to the Chronicle, one dealer “said the migrants’ desperation makes them easy targets
for exploitation by coyotes:”
“‘They offer to take you to the United States and help you find a job,’ the man said in an
interview from jail. ‘They tell you that once you work you can pay them back for the help
they gave you. But once you are in their hands they start trying to figure out who your
family is, who your parents are. Later, the threats start. They put you out there selling
drugs.’
“The coyotes, he said, ‘put you under threat because you owe them money and you have to
pay them. There are people who pay them, but they don’t succeed in getting out because
once you are benefiting them, they don’t want to set you free. They always want you to be
working.’”79
In a heartbreaking February 2023 report, the New York Times detailed the plight of
unaccompanied alien children (UACs) brought across the border illegally and who now reside in
the United States.80 The next phase of this investigation will cover in unflinching detail the
horrors many of these minors continue to experience daily. In this context, however, Americans
must understand that in addition to the horrific exploitation and abuse to which many of these
minors have been subjected, many are trapped in a system of debt bondage from which they may
never escape. Per the Times, “Far from home, many of these children are under intense pressure
to earn money. They send cash back to their families while often being in debt to their sponsors
for smuggling fees, rent and living expenses.”81
78
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Department of Homeland Security Border Security Metrics Report: 2021, April 27, 2022, 63,
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2022-06/2022_0427_plcy_border_security_metrics_report_FY2021_%282020_data%29.pdf.
79
Megan Cassidy and Gabrielle Lurie, “This Is How San Francisco’s Open-Air Drug Dealers Work,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2023,
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/san-francisco-drug-trade-how-dealers-work/.
80
Hannah Dreier, “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.,” New York Times, February 25, 2023,
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/us/unaccompanied-migrant-child-workers-exploitation.html.
81
Ibid.
16
Just consider the experience of one Guatemalan

teenager sent by his parents to the United States to
find work:
“Nery Cutzal was 13 when he met his sponsor

over Facebook Messenger. Once Nery arrived
in Florida, he discovered that he owed more
than $4,000 and had to find his own place to
live. His sponsor sent him threatening text
messages and kept a running list of new debts:
$140 for filling out HHS paperwork; $240 for
clothes from Walmart; $45 for a taco dinner.
“‘Don’t mess with me,’ the sponsor wrote. ‘You

don’t mean anything to me.’
“Nery began working until 3 a.m. most nights

at a trendy Mexican restaurant near Palm
Beach to make the payments. ‘He said I would
be able to go to school and he would take care
of me, but it was all lies,’ Nery said.”82
Another teenager told the Times, “I still have to pay

back my debt, so I still have to work.”83
The Border Patrol’s Owens highlighted this practice (Source: New York Times)
in May 2023, telling Committee staff that individuals
can “find themselves indentured and paying off that debt for years to come, doing unspeakable
things.”84
Jones, the former Texas DPS captain, has said, “If they don’t pay their debt then the cartel has the
information about where they’re going, but more importantly, they have the information on their
families in home countries. From there, they can start the threats and hold them accountable
through debt bondage, a form of human trafficking. Either pay or we’re going to come after your
family.”85
He further explained how the debt-bondage system works in his July 2023 testimony before the
House Committee on Homeland Security:
“The Gulf Cartel specifically has a saying and that is that ‘people are the gift that keep
giving,’ because they can make them move the commodity…but we have seen that on the
82
Ibid.
83
Ibid.
84
Jason Owens, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 142-143, May 5, 2023.
85
Todd Bensman, “Overwhelmed Mexican Alien-Smuggling Cartels Use Wristband System to Bring Order to Business,” Center for Immigration Studies, March
2, 2021, https://cis.org/Bensman/Overwhelmed-Mexican-AlienSmuggling-Cartels-Use-Wristband-System-Bring-Order-Business.
17
border, where they’re now making migrants carry narcotics. We have seen where they then
exploit them. We’ve seen where other migrants are now being used to transport migrants
themselves because you can truly make this commodity do what you want it to do. And
what these really represent, that’s the most important here to understand, is this is a
process, because just as Border Patrol was being absolutely overwhelmed with these
people, so were the cartels.
“And the Gulf had to come up with a process that worked and you’re seeing it in my hand.
There’s a number on each of these [wristbands] … That number goes into a database.”86
“And now [the cartels] have transitioned into the final version of human trafficking known as ‘debt bondage’ and I
am holding it in my hands. This is it. This is how emboldened they’ve become.” — Former Texas DPS Capt. Jaeson
Jones testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security, July 19, 2023, about the Mexican cartels’
sophisticated new system of inventorying, trafficking, and enslaving hundreds of thousands of individuals.
According to testimony submitted to the Committee by Sheriff Bill Waybourn of Tarrant County,
Texas, on July 19, 2023, smugglers and traffickers are even exploiting the state’s criminal justice
system to further advance their illicit objectives, in particular trapping vulnerable women in
forced servitude:
“These traffickers also capitalize on the vulnerable inmate population by identifying
females who are incarcerated and bond them out of jail for the strict purpose of sex
86
18
trafficking. They will also force uncooperative females, sometimes those who were
smuggled over the border, to engage in petty criminal activity to ensure they are arrested
and jailed. These criminal organizations are using the jail system—a taxpayer funded
public safety system—to both capitalize on their victims and identify new ones.”87
Texas DPS has reported a similar phenomenon, stating that smugglers often pick up individuals
from stash houses and attempt to transport them to other destinations throughout the state,
where some are “forced into debt bondage and work off the debt through forced labor and sex
trafficking.”88
Vaughan, in her July 2023 testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, also
noted this new reality for many people who make the journey, stating:
“Some people pay a discounted fee and give up their children for the smugglers to use to
give to other single adults. Others agree, or are forced, to be drug mules. A large number
just make a down payment on the smuggling fee that’s paid off in fear-driven forced labor,
debt bondage arrangements that are difficult for them to escape from.”89
In July 2023, nearly 60 victims of human trafficking were rescued from an illicit marijuana
facility in central California.90 According to one report, “The victims arrived several days earlier,
smuggled across the southern border ‘with the promise that they would have a good-paying job
and a place to stay’…They were found living in ‘horrible’ conditions, forced to process marijuana
‘to pay back the individuals that brought them across the border,’” per law enforcement.91
The cartels’ mass use of debt bondage, and the complex systems devised to make it a reality, are a
unique consequence of Mayorkas’ open-borders policies. The following exchange between New
York Rep. Andrew Garbarino, and the Texas DPS veteran Jones in July 2023 should sober every
American:
Garbarino: “You talked about how you’ve seen this before, but lower numbers. With these
higher numbers and the amount of people, is this relatively a new phenomenon under
Secretary Mayorkas?”
Jones: “It is. Now the smuggling of people has always been there, but the adjustment from
smuggling into the trafficking through debt bondage because due to the sheer numbers,
they thought to themselves, ‘My God, we can make so much money and we can do it for the
long run.’ This is the game-changer. When you think of human trafficking, most people
87
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Prepared Testimony of Sheriff Bill Waybourn for Biden and Mayorkas’ Open
Border: Advancing Cartel Crime in America, 118th Cong., 1st sess., July 19, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Written-testimony-
SIGNED3.pdf.
88
State of Texas, Office of the Texas Governor, Operation Lone Star Combats Increasing Smuggling Attempts By Cartels, April 21, 2023,
https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/operation-lone-star-combats-increasing-smuggling-attempts-by-cartels.
89
90
Aliza Chasan, “Dozens of suspected human trafficking victims found processing black market marijuana in California,” CBS News, July 27, 2023,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dozens-human-trafficking-victims-processing-black-market-marijuana-operation-merced-california/.
91
Ibid.
19
think of commercial sex. That’s one piece of it. Don’t forget you have forced labor, and this
is your final form, debt bondage, and now it’s nationwide.”92
Complex Human Trafficking/Smuggling Operations: One of the ways in which some of the
cartels execute their mass trafficking operation and enslave people in debt bondage is by using a
complex system of wristbands. These wristbands help create an inventory of those who will owe
the cartels upon arriving in the United States, where individuals are going, which group is
responsible for smuggling the alien, and other logistical information.
The office of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Tex., has confirmed this type of system, in which different
color wristbands indicate how many times the alien has attempted to cross the border, and
whether they will be allowed to try again—“Those with red bands are first-time crossers and those
with purple bands are not allowed to try to cross again.”93 One expert on smuggling has observed
that the cartels “are organizing the merchandise in ways you could never imagine five or 10 years
ago.”94 The Border Patrol’s Owens told the House Committee on Homeland Security these
organizations use these wristbands “as a way to categorize them, basically treating them like
cattle.”95
Incredibly, Mayorkas claimed ignorance of these wristbands when questioned by Texas Sen. Ted
Cruz in a March 2023 Senate Judiciary hearing. When shown pictures of the bracelets worn by
illegal aliens, as well as one in Cruz’s hand, Mayorkas testified he did not know what they were.96
92
93
Sandra Sanchez, “EXCLUSIVE: Colored Wristbands Help Cartels Track Migrants, Payments for Smuggling Them, Lawmaker Confirms,” Border Report,
April 15, 2021, https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/exclusive-colored-wristbands-help-cartels-track-migrants-payments-for-smuggling-
them-lawmaker-confirms/.
94
Miriam Jordan, “Smuggling Migrants at the Border Now a Billion-Dollar Business,” New York Times, July 25, 2022,
95
96
“Secretary Mayorkas Testifies at Homeland Security Oversight Hearing,” C-SPAN video, 2:10:05, March 28, 2023, https://www.c-span.org/video/?526938-
1/secretary-mayorkas-testifies-homeland-security-oversight-hearing.
20
WATCH: Mayorkas Confesses Ignorance About Cartel Human Trafficking

Operations
In response to this surprising admission by the secretary, National Border Patrol Council (NBPC)
Vice President Art Del Cueto told Fox Business, “A Google search would have gotten him the
answer. It’s been reported many times. … It baffles me for the Secretary of Homeland Security to
say he has no idea what they’re for.”97
Stash Houses: “Just imagine 60 people in an enclosed space with no electricity, running water, or
food,” from which they “can’t escape because often they are locked in,” said Laredo Sector Border
Patrol agent Kenneth Kroupa in 2020.98 Such images offer just a glimpse into the network of
stash houses the cartels and smugglers use to facilitate the trafficking and smuggling of illegal
aliens throughout the country.
97
“Mayorkas’ cartel wristband ignorance is ‘baffling’: Art Del Cueto,” Fox Business, Fox Business video, 01:01, March 29, 2023,
https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6323600529112.
98
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Frontline Magazine, Stashed Away: CBP Fights Human Smuggling and Disease
by Shutting Down Filthy Stash Houses, by John Davis, October 22, 2020, https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-fights-human-smuggling-and-stash-houses.
21
The cartels use homes, apartments, or

even hotel rooms as stash houses to hide
large groups of illegal aliens after they
have been smuggled into the country and
prior to transporting them to their next
destination. CBP officials describe these
sites as often being filthy buildings with
no water, food, or electricity, where
smugglers pack illegal aliens until they
can be distributed around the country,
with air conditioning “unheard of,”
despite temperatures often in excess of
100 degrees.99 Illegal aliens are often
(Source: U.S. Border Patrol) locked in these houses, unable to leave.
Garbage often accumulates inside, as
putting the trash generated by dozens of people out for collection could attract unwanted
attention.100
These stash houses represent a public health nightmare, as the cramped and unsanitary
conditions facilitate the transmission of diseases like COVID-19 and tuberculosis, particularly
among populations coming from countries with minimal public health infrastructure or lower
vaccination rates for diseases largely eradicated in the United States.101
The use of stash houses has exploded on Mayorkas’ watch. In May 2021, in the early days of the
crisis, Texas DPS and Border Patrol officials reported a 400-percent increase in the number of
illegal aliens rescued from stash houses.102 From October 2022 to April 2023 in just the El Paso
Sector, Border Patrol agents discovered more than 165 stash houses, containing more than 2,400
individuals.103
By comparison, in 2022, El Paso agents uncovered 232 stash houses.104 In FY20, Border Patrol
uncovered 397 stash houses across all nine sectors.105 According to the New York Times in 2022,
99
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Frontline Magazine, Stashed Away: CBP Fights Human Smuggling and Disease
by Shutting Down Filthy Stash Houses, by John Davis, October 22, 2020, https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-fights-human-smuggling-and-stash-houses.
100
MaryAnn Martinez, “Border Patrol Waging War on Cartels with Migrant ‘Stash House’ Busts,” New York Post, April 6, 2023,
https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/border-patrol-waging-war-on-cartels-with-stash-house-busts/.
101
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Frontline Magazine, Stashed Away: CBP Fights Human Smuggling and
Disease by Shutting Down Filthy Stash Houses, by John Davis, October 22, 2020, https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/cbp-fights-human-smuggling-and-stash-houses.
102
Adolfo Muniz, “Texas DPS Says Human Smugglers Using Color-Coded Wristband System at the U.S.-Mexico Border,” Spectrum News 1, May 15, 2021,
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2021/05/14/texas-dps-says-human-smugglers-using-color-coded-wristband-system-at-the-u-s--
mexico-border-.
103
Chief Raul Ortiz [@USBPChief], “51 Migrants Located in a Single Stash House! US Border Patrol El Paso Sector Human Smuggling Interdiction Teams
Have Uncovered over 165 Stash Houses in the Region with over 2,421 Migrants so Far in FY23. Outstanding Work Is Being Done at EPT! @USBPChiefEPT,”
Tweet, Twitter, April 28, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChief/status/1652010403734384640.
104
MaryAnn Martinez, “Border Patrol Waging War on Cartels with Migrant ‘Stash House’ Busts,” New York Post, April 6, 2023,
https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/border-patrol-waging-war-on-cartels-with-stash-house-busts/.
105
22
“Over the past year, federal agents have raided stash houses holding dozens of migrants on nearly
a daily basis.”106
Since January 2021, CBP and ICE have conducted hundreds of operations to shut down stash
houses and break up these criminal enterprises, with CBP’s press page alone documenting the
routine occurrence of these operations on Mayorkas’ watch.107
• In a one-week period in July 2023, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso Sector discovered
six stash houses holding 52 illegal aliens.108
• In May 2023, Border Patrol agents in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, found more than 50
illegal aliens “living in deplorable conditions” in a stash house.109
• In April 2023, CBP and Texas DPS conducted operations at two separate stash houses in El
Paso, finding more than 140 illegal aliens.110
• On March 27, 2023, Texas DPS moved on an El Paso stash house holding 23 illegal aliens.
The house contained a shrine to Santa Muerte, the patron saint of the cartels.111
• On March 3, 2023, the Border Patrol announced operations involving four stash houses in
the El Paso Sector, rescuing 171 illegal aliens in the process.112
• In September 2022, HSI agents uncovered a stash house in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
holding 29 illegal aliens, drugs, and a firearm.113
• In September 2022, CBP announced Border Patrol agents and members of Texas DPS had
rescued 21 illegal aliens from a stash house in Laredo, seizing more than 160 pounds of
illicit drugs in the process.114
• In August 2022, Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement rescued 28 illegal aliens
from a stash house in Edinburg, Texas, after a woman called 911 and told operators she
was being held against her will.115
106
107
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, Media Releases, accessed on July 19, 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/media-
releases/all?field_date_release_value_op=between&field_date_release_value%5Bvalue%5D=&field_date_release_value%5Bmin%5D=2021-01-
20&field_date_release_value%5Bmax%5D=2023-04-14&field_newsroom_type_target_id_1=All&combine=stash+house.
108
SECTION 2: THE CARTEL-CRIME NEXU
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, El Paso Sector, El Paso Sector weekly recap, July 19, 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/el-paso-sector-weekly-recap.
109
Dave Burge, “Border Patrol Finds More than 50 Migrants in ‘Deplorable Conditions’ in Stash House,” KTSM 9 News, May 15, 2023,
110 THE BORDER AND IN THE UNITED STA
https://www.ktsm.com/news/border-patrol-finds-more-than-50-migrants-in-deplorable-conditions-in-stash-house/.
Patrick Reilly, “Border Forces Find over 140 Illegal Migrants in Stash House Raids,” New York Post, April 4, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/04/04/border-
forces-find-over-140-illegals-in-stash-house-raids/.
111
Louis Casiano, “Texas Illegal Immigrant Stash House Found with Shrine to Cartel ‘Santa Muerte’ Saint Inside,” Fox News, March 28, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-illegal-immigrant-stash-house-shrine-cartel-santa-muerte-saint.
112
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, El Paso Sector, Agents intercept smuggled migrants from multiple
local stash houses, March 3, 2023, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/agents-intercept-smuggled-migrants-multiple-local-stash-houses.
113
Matthew Reisen, “Twenty-Nine Migrants Found in Alleged Cartel Stash House,” Albuquerque Journal, October 18, 2022,
https://www.abqjournal.com/news/local/twenty-nine-migrants-found-in-alleged-cartel-stash-house/article_79a37fa1-d515-5ee6-aefd-ed819ccaa1b1.html.
114
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, Laredo Sector, Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents shut down
stash house and seize narcotics, September 7, 2022, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/laredo-sector-border-patrol-agents-shut-down-stash-
house-and-seize.
115
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, Rio Grande Valley Sector, Migrant Credited with Saving Herself
and 27 Others from Stash House, August 16, 2022, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/migrant-credited-saving-herself-and-27-others-stash-
house.
23
• In April 2022, the Border Patrol disrupted operations at four stash houses in 24 hours,
leading to the apprehension of 53 illegal aliens. The stash houses were part of El Paso
apartment complexes and motels.116
Stash houses are not limited to border towns, but are used throughout the country wherever the
cartels need to store illegal aliens. For example, in July 2022, ICE busted multiple stash houses in
Washington, D.C.117 More than 70 illegal aliens were found in the operation, including 13
minors.118
These stash houses also represent a major humanitarian concern. According to Border Patrol
agent Fidel Baca, “So you have criminals inside these homes, a lot of the times they’ve committed
serious crimes, crimes against people, crimes of sexual assault, crimes of assault, and they are
caretaking for lots of people...We have children, we have women in these homes, and they are
being taken care of by criminals.”119
Per the Border Patrol’s Martinez during a transcribed interview with the House Committee on
Homeland Security in June 2023, when it comes to how long individuals are held in these
locations, “It could be hours, it could be days, it could be weeks. It depends on when the coast is
clear, when the cartel believes the coast is clear for them to travel up north or further their
travel.”120 When the cartels decide to move, many of these people are crammed into tractor-
trailers, train cars, or other vehicles to be transported elsewhere in the United States.
Now-Border Patrol Deputy Chief Matthew Hudak has said, “They’ll stockpile them for a couple of
days in one of these stash houses until
they have enough people to put in a
tractor-trailer, then lock it with no way for
them to escape the brutal South Texas
heat. When we open up these containers,
and it’s well over 105 degrees with no
ventilation…no water. It’s tragic.”121
Americans need look no further than the
horror uncovered in San Antonio last
summer, when more than 50 individuals
died after being smuggled in the back of a
locked tractor-trailer, for devastating
(Source: CBP)
116
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, El Paso Sector, Four stash houses busted in 24-hours, April 8,
2022, https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/four-stash-houses-busted-24-hours.
117
Quinn Owen, “73 Migrants -- Including 13 Kids -- Found in D.C. ‘Stash Houses,’ Official Says; Smuggling Suspected,” ABC News, July 28, 2022,
https://abcnews.go.com/US/73-migrants-including-13-kids-found-dc-stash/story?id=87565679.
118
Ibid.
119
Ariana Parra, “El Paso Sector Border Patrol Tells Community to Keep an Eye out for Stash Houses,” KFOX 14, April 6, 2023,
https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/el-paso-sector-border-patrol-tells-community-to-keep-an-eye-out-for-stash-houses-report-smuggling.
120
121
24
proof of how the cartels treat these people like cargo.122

In another devastating example, 13 Mexicans and Guatemalans were killed in March 2021, when
their transport vehicle was struck by a tractor-trailer in Imperial County, California.123 At the time
of the accident, 25 people were packed in the Ford Expedition driven by Jose Cruz Noguez, a
Mexican national who, according to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) criminal complaint,
“oversees the transportation of individuals who are in the United States illegally to stash houses;
collects smuggling payments from family members or sponsors; recruits drivers; and scouts for
the presence of law enforcement.”124
More than a dozen people were killed in early March 2021 when the overpacked SUV they were being smuggled in
was hit by a tractor-trailer in California. (Source: Gregory Bull/AP)
The cartels’ casual disregard for human life is manifestly apparent. According to Martinez:
“I mean, they consider you a commodity, not a human being, and they will stop at nothing
to make money. So, you being a commodity, it doesn’t matter if something happens to you.
So, they’re gonna lock you in an 18-wheeler; they’re gonna walk you through the brush,
and if you fall behind because you sprain your ankle, they’re gonna leave you behind to
find your own way home. They have no regard for human life.”125
122
“Death Toll Rises to 53 after Bodies of Migrants Found in Texas Tractor-Trailer,” CBS News, June 29, 2022, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-antonio-
migrants-texas-tractor-trailer-dead-injured/.
123
Doha Madani, “Man Charged with Smuggling Migrants after California Crash That Killed 13 People,” NBC News, March 31, 2021,
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/man-charged-smuggling-migrants-after-california-crash-killed-13-people-n1262642.
124
U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California, Man Charged with Organizing Smuggling Event that Led to Deaths of 13
Mexican and Guatemalan Nationals, March 30, 2021, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/man-charged-organizing-smuggling-event-led-deaths-13-mexican-
and-guatemalan-nationals.
125
Joel Martinez, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 122-123, June 1, 2023.
25
Stash houses also function as prisons for an increasing number of illegal aliens, as more and more
are being held for ransom after being brought into the United States. In July 2022, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that since February 2022, the agency—along with the
Border Patrol and other law enforcement—had “rescued 88 victims from kidnapping for ransom
incidents and continue to see an increase in extortion crimes directly affecting undocumented
immigrants who have paid human smugglers to bring them across the United States-Mexico
border.”126 According to Jeffrey Downey, FBI special agent in charge in El Paso, the FBI
documented no instances of such extortion in 2021.127
“They have already paid upfront to cross the border. And then once they get here, they are
assaulted and held in life-threatening situations,” Downey told the New York Post last year. In his
experience, individuals’ families are forced to pay between $3,000-$10,000 on top of the
thousands of dollars that have already been paid by the aliens themselves to enter the country.128
Another immigration expert has said that family members of those being held in stash houses are
often extorted by the smuggling groups for even more money.129 In another report, the Post
noted, “Migrants who are taken captive by cartel members have their cell phones taken away and
have been dismembered if their families or friends in their home countries in the U.S. are unable
to pay a ransom.”130
Border Patrol agent Oscar Joanicot has made clear the stakes involved with these stash houses—
“I don’t care who you are, when you walk in and see something like [a stash house], especially
when there’s children involved, your heart goes out to them. … [The smugglers’] commodity is
people. They don’t care if someone dies. They just go and find another person waiting to come
across.”131
Drone Operations and Surveillance: The cartels have also developed and deployed sophisticated
tactics in their use of drones to conduct surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations, as
well as deliver drugs across the border. According to the DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat
Assessment, “Mexican TCOs also exploit various aerial methods to transport illicit drugs across
the Southwest border. These methods include the use of ultralight aircraft and unmanned aerial
systems (drones) to conduct airdrops.”132 Per testimony from DHS officials in 2022, “use of
126
U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, El Paso Field Office, FBI El Paso, US Border Patrol, and the El Paso Police Department Rescue
Victims Held in Another Kidnapping for Ransom Incident, July 8, 2022, https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/elpaso/news/press-releases/fbi-el-paso-us-
border-patrol-and-the-el-paso-police-department-rescue-victims-held-in-another-kidnapping-for-ransom-incident.
127
Isabel Vincent, “Cartels Hold Migrants for $10K Ransom after Crossing US Border,” New York Post, July 13, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/07/13/cartels-
hold-migrants-for-10k-ransom-after-crossing-us-border/.
128
Ibid.
129
Mark Krikorian, “The Human Cost of Open-ish Borders,” National Review, March 3, 2021, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-human-cost-of-open-
ish-borders/.
130
MaryAnn Martinez, “Migrants’ Fingers, Ears Cut off If They Can’t Pay Cartels: Report,” New York Post, May 22, 2023,
https://nypost.com/2023/05/22/migrants-fingers-ears-cut-off-if-they-cant-pay-cartels-report/.
131
132
U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, DEA-DCT-DIR-008-21, 73, March 2021,
26
drones for illicit cross-border activity is not only wide-spread, but also organized and an
integrated element of TCO operations.”133
If Border Patrol agents are stretched to the breaking point trying to secure the border and
apprehend illegal aliens and illicit drugs coming across on the ground, imagine the extra
nightmare that expanded cartel drone operations represent.
Lieutenant Chris Olivarez of Texas DPS recently described the dire situation—“They’re able to
scout everything and watch what we are doing, every movement we are making. That’s why it’s a
cat and mouse game and we have to try and be one step ahead of them.”134 NBPC President
Brandon Judd has echoed Olivarez’s assessment, saying, “They’ll use drones to scout our
positions, where our Border Patrol agents are, how can they facilitate the drug trade. They’ll also
use the drones to actually fly into United States land and they’ll carry small packages with
drugs.”135
According to Gloria Chavez, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector,
the cartels “have 17 times the number of drones, twice the amount of flight hours and unlimited
funding to grow their operations.”136 In a June 2023 interview with the House Committee on
Homeland Security, the Border Patrol’s Martinez confirmed that the cartels were using drones to
track agents’ movements and patterns in order to assist their smuggling operations.137
One Border Patrol agent told the press in July 2023, two months after the expiration of Title 42,
that these operations were still ongoing. According to the agent, “We don’t have operational
control of the border,” and the cartels are “using drones to bypass our movements, including
sensor locations. They know where we are at all times. They know how to get around us.”138
During a recent hearing conducted by the Committee, Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz said that
drone operations just in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had skyrocketed, posing a potentially
insurmountable challenge for Border Patrol: “The cartel drone detections just right here in the
RGV Sector in FY22 was 35,000 drone detections. … Out of the 35,000 drone detections, only
10,000 were intercepted.”139 One Texas sheriff recently told Congress that just three Texas
counties observed almost 2,000 drone incursions in a 31-day period earlier this year.140
133
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Oversight, Management, and Accountability, and
Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, Assessing the Department of Homeland Security’s Efforts to Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems,
117th Cong., 2nd sess., March 31, 2022, 22, https://www.congress.gov/117/chrg/CHRG-117jhrg47767/CHRG-117jhrg47767.pdf.
134
Robert Sherman, “For Texas border officials, cartel drones are the latest headache,” NewsNation, January 19, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-
news/immigration/border-coverage/for-texas-border-officials-cartel-drones-are-the-latest-headache/.
135
Ibid.
136
Ali Bradley and Robert Sherman, “Border agent describes how cartels are using drones,” NewsNation, February 9, 2023,
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/immigration/border-coverage/border-agent-cartels-using-drones/.
137
138
Bethany Blankley, “Border Patrol agents: June southwest border apprehension data is a ‘shell game,’” The Center Square, July 11, 2023,
https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/article_d6ece71e-2049-11ee-8d58-130f9e1cd70e.html.
139
1:52:49, March 15, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/7Z1ETzh3AUA?feature=share&t=6734.
140
Anna Giaritelli, “Texas sheriff tells Congress nearly 2,000 Mexican drug cartel drones are swarming US skies,” The Washington Examiner, February 15,
2023, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/immigration/texas-sheriff-drones-border-mexico-congress.
27
The cost-benefit analysis also weighs heavily in favor of the cartels’ expansive use of drones.
James Mandryck, deputy assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Intelligence, testified to the
Committee in July 2023 that for the cost of perhaps $1,000 per drone, the cartels could smuggle
around $1 million worth of fentanyl into the country per flight and run “continuous” flights
throughout the day.141
The cartels also employ a vast human intelligence network in support of their operations. El Paso
Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony “Scott” Good told the House Committee on Homeland Security
in June 2023 that the cartels use the agency’s own checkpoints against them. When asked
whether cartel-employed scouts “know about situations where Border Patrol is vulnerable, like
when you have to shut down checkpoint[s] because of decompression or weather extremity,” he
responded, “Yes. People, scouts, will frequently drive through the checkpoints to see if they’re
open or not, yes.”142
The Cartel Connection to Crime at the Border and in Our Communities

The crime and chaos caused by TCOs has been exacerbated by Mayorkas’ policies. According to
the National Sheriffs’ Association, these groups “are directly responsible for the increases in
deaths, human trafficking, sex trafficking, and unprecedented violence occurring in cities and
counties across our nation.”143
Sheriff Eddie Guerra of Hidalgo County, Texas, who is also chairman of the Southwestern Border
Sheriffs’ Coalition, said in a February 2023 press release that the crisis “is a public safety and
public health issue. It’s not just the violence and drugs, it’s the sexual assaults, human trafficking,
enslavement, and fear and terror that are destroying neighborhoods here in the United States.”144
Drug Trafficking: The illicit drug trade in American cities is booming on Biden and Mayorkas’
watch. According to Michelle Cook, sheriff of Clay County, Florida, in 2022, “I will tell you that
the open borders are a problem. We are seeing a significant amount of drugs making its way to
Clay County because of open borders, and that is definitely something that concerns me as a
Sheriff.”145
The cartels have grown so bold that the illegal alien dealer networks they supply have taken over
the drug trade in major American cities. In California, “Honduran migrants have taken over San
Francisco’s drug market with the aid and blessing of Mexican cartels,” where “they have squeezed
competition out through their highly-coordinated organization and sheer numbers…”146
141
“Protecting the U.S. Homeland: Fighting the Flow of Fentanyl from the Southwest Border,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video, 1:52:00,
July 12, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/L0EurNtLz0M?feature=share&t=6716.
142
Anthony Scott Good, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 142, June 29, 2023.
143
“Nation’s Sheriffs Call for the Eradication of Drug Cartels, Starting with the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels,” The National Sheriffs’ Association
and American Sheriff Alliance, February 9, 2023, https://www.sheriffs.org/AmericanSheriffAlliance_Feb092023.
144
Ibid.
145
“Clay County sheriff blames ‘open borders’ following arrest, seizure of 26 pounds of meth,” First Coast News, February 8, 2022,
https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/crime/clay-county-sheriff-blames-open-borders-following-arrest-seizure-of-26-pounds-of-meth/77-8b4d1e4e-3d6f-
44e0-9391-46b298f039a1.
146
Stephanie Pagones, “Honduran migrants working for Mexican cartels brazenly took over San Francisco’s drug market thanks to lax policies,” New York Post,
July 10, 2023, https://nypost.com/2023/07/10/honduran-migrants-mexican-cartels-overtaking-san-francisco/.
28
Per the San Francisco Chronicle’s investigation, the cartels are behind the rise of this vast
network:
“The cartels hire runners to ferry their product from Mexico to Southern California; from
there it’s transported up the West Coast with local operatives close to the cartels working
out the details. These operatives often own a few properties in the East Bay, which can
serve as stash houses and rental units for street dealers, according to court records and
police interviews.
“These operatives are the highest-ranking members of the Bay Area network and are the
middlemen in this global operation. The operatives are known to their underlings as ‘the
machine,’ according to two sources.
“Drugs will typically flow through the machine to either a lower-level distributor or directly
to a dealer.
“Shipments are often sent by car to distributors who live primarily in Oakland and are
from Honduras.”147
Mayor London Breed said the massive and complex network “conduct[s] business like they’re
going to a job.”148 One dealer told Chronicle reporters that the city’s streets are “oversaturated
with migrant Honduran teens,” while another, a man in his mid-20s, told them, “I’m going to be
honest, I came here to sell drugs,” and that he has been arrested four times since 2022.149
Tom Wolf, founder of Pacific Alliance for Prevention and Recovery and a recovering addict
himself, told one media outlet in March 2023 that San Francisco had “become the epicenter of the
overdose crisis in the United States,” and that authorities needed to “take these organized drug
147
Megan Cassidy and Gabrielle Lurie, “This Is How San Francisco’s Open-Air Drug Dealers Work,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 2023,
https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2023/san-francisco-drug-trade-how-dealers-work/.
148
Ibid.
149
Ibid.
29
dealers down because they are cartel-fueled, organized drug dealers that are operating on our
streets.”150
Meanwhile, the cartels’ drug-smuggling operations are gaining momentum in Texas, as well.
According to Tarrant County’s Waybourn, the county recorded “a 1000% increase in the amount
of drugs seized in a two-year span. In 2020, we seized $3 million worth of drugs. In 2022, it was
$35 million.”151 Along with this increase in drugs flooding the Dallas-Fort Worth area came a
massive increase in the number of fentanyl poisonings, increasing from 10 between 2018-2019 to
113 between 2020-2021.152
This deadly phenomenon is not just limited to border states, however. States and towns hundreds
of miles from the Southwest border are feeling the consequences of increased cartel activity.
Per NewsNation’s Robert Sherman, “Once limited to cities along the southern border, the
influence of Mexican drug cartels has spread to smaller American towns across the country,
including several in the state of Montana.”153 Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told the
outlet last year, “We have specific intelligence that primarily two drug cartels based out of Mexico
are operating here in Montana on a very large scale,”154 and that he assesses the likelihood of
drugs on Montana streets being linked to the cartels at “100 percent,” saying, “Within 20 or 30
miles of where you purchased that, there is very likely a Mexican drug cartel member or an
associate involved with that drug trade.”155 In December 2022, the DOJ announced that it had
secured 22 convictions of individuals in Montana involved in a “large-scale drug trafficking
organization that had ties to the Sinaloa Cartel,” with three of those 22 directly connected to the
cartel.156
A sheriff in Oregon recently told the press, “When you hear about the drug cartels and the
amounts of drugs coming across the border, you start thinking those are big city problems. But if
you have drugs in your community, and I don’t think there is any community that can say they
don’t have any, it is coming from the drug cartels.”157
150
Bailee Hill, “San Francisco activist warns city has become 'epicenter' of 'cartel-fueled' drug crisis as overdoses soar,” Fox News, March 21, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/media/san-francisco-activist-warns-city-become-epicenter-cartel-fueled-drug-crisis-overdoses-soar.
151
SIGNED3.pdf.
152
Ibid.
153
Robert Sherman, “Mexican drug cartels arrive in Big Sky Country,” NewsNation, February 7, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/cuomo-show/mexican-
cartels-montana/.
154
Ibid.
155
“NewsNation exclusive: Deadly drug cartels in America | CUOMO,” NewsNation, February 6, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/video/newsnation-
exclusive-deadly-drug-cartels-in-america-cuomo/8367575/.
156
U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Montana, Investigation dismantles Butte drug trafficking organization with ties to the Sinaloa
Cartel, December 15, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-mt/pr/investigation-dismantles-butte-drug-trafficking-organization-ties-sinaloa-cartel.
157
Beth Warren, A cartel flooded an Oregon town with drugs. Here's how authorities nabbed the ringleader.,” Louisville Courier Journal, March 9, 2023,
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2023/03/09/el-menchos-mexican-cartel-cjng-supplied-drugs-to-portland-oregon/11418543002/.
30
In May 2023, the DEA announced dozens of arrests and the seizure of 1.3 million fentanyl pills in
Kansas, Missouri, and southern Illinois following a year-long operation, “Operation Last Mile,”
which targeted “operatives, associates and distributors affiliated with the Sinaloa and Jalisco
cartels — the two drug cartels based in Mexico responsible for the ‘vast majority’ of the fentanyl
and methamphetamine that is killing Americans.”158 Per one report, “The operation showed that
the cartels use violent local street gangs and criminal groups and people across the U.S. to flood
American communities with ‘huge’ amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which drives
addiction and violence and kills Americans.”159
The operation resulted in the seizure of nearly 193 million lethal doses of fentanyl across the
country,160 with the agency’s efforts also highlighting the cartels’ relationships with gangs and
dealers in states far from the border, like Kentucky,161 Nebraska,162 and Colorado.163 According to
158
Angela Mulka, “Yearlong DEA operation targets cartel associates distributing drugs across US,” The Alton Telegraph, May 8, 2023,
https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/dea-st-louis-division-operation-long-mile-18085840.php.
159
Ibid.
160
U.S. Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA Operation Last Mile Tracks Down Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartel Associates Operating
within the United States, May 8, 2023, https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2023/05/08/dea-operation-last-mile-tracks-down-sinaloa-and-jalisco-cartel-5.
161
Mark Vanderhoff, “DEA targets link between Mexican cartels, Louisville gangs,” WLKY, May 8, 2023, https://www.wlky.com/article/dea-mexican-cartels-
louisville-gangs-drugs/43829200.
162
“DEA arrests 87 cartel-connected suspects in Nebraska, Iowa and surrounding states,” KMTV-3, May 8, 2023, https://www.3newsnow.com/news/local-
news/dea-arrests-87-cartel-connected-suspects-in-nebraska-iowa-and-surrounding-states.
163
Ashley Eberhardt, “Year-long DEA operation seizes almost 900K fentanyl doses,” Fox 21 News, May 9, 2023, https://www.fox21news.com/news/state/year-
long-dea-operation-seizes-almost-900k-fentanyl-doses/.
31
another recent report, more than 300 people in the United States have been charged or arrested
for criminal activity directly linked to the Mexican cartels since January 2022.164
The cartels are primarily motivated by profit margins, but law enforcement officials have noted
more sinister elements within the cartels’ trafficking of record amounts of fentanyl into the
United States. According to Waybourn, “TCSO intelligence collection shows that Mexican cartels
have weaponized drugs with the intent to harm Texas residents and destabilize our communities.
In fact, cartel members have before expressed to our team that ‘they will send whatever kills the
gringo [Americans, irrespective of race].’”165
Similarly, when asked by Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., during a July 2023 hearing if law
enforcement had observed a “revenge element” in the cartels’ operations, DEA Principal Deputy
Administrator George Papadopoulos testified:
“We have evidence in some of the previous cases I mentioned where the cartels knew that
there was deadly fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl that they were sending to the U.S. was
deadly because they tested it on human beings in Mexico and they still sent it
anyway…[We]’ve seen pills with less than a milligram of fentanyl all the way up to eight
milligrams of fentanyl. The average dose is 2.4 milligrams, and two milligrams is
considered a potentially deadly dose.”166
Mayorkas’ new CBP One app scheme also presents an opportunity for the cartels to push more
illicit drugs across the Southwest border. One recent press report noted, “Frontline employees
being pulled from normal inspection duties are reducing the number of labor hours dedicated to
finding hidden narcotics, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection,” and that
per this source, “One worry is by redirecting personnel from inspections to asylum processing we
are missing the deadliest drug we have seen in modern times, fentanyl.”167
The source explained that those entering the country via the new CBP One app “require hours of
administrative processing that is converting some frontline CBP Officers into asylum petition
clerks.”168
Ultimately, “even here in the heartland of America, cartels are taking lives from our
communities,” said Michael Davis, special agent in charge of the DEA’s St. Louis Division, in May
2023.169 Unfortunately, even as these vital federal agencies work tirelessly to protect Americans
from the scourge of fentanyl and other drugs, the cartels are relentlessly flooding more of these
164
Steve Joachim and Andrew Dorn, “Interactive map: Tracking cartel arrests across the country,” KTLA5 News, February 16, 2023,
https://ktla.com/news/interactive-map-tracking-cartel-arrests-across-the-country/.
165
SIGNED3.pdf.
166
“Protecting the U.S. Homeland: Fighting the Flow of Fentanyl from the Southwest Border,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video, 1:12:38,
July 12, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/L0EurNtLz0M?feature=share&t=4358.
167
Randy Clark, “Exclusive: Official Says Biden’s CBP One Program Benefits Drug Cartels,” Breitbart, June 18, 2023,
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/06/18/exclusive-official-says-bidens-cbp-one-program-benefits-drug-cartels/.
168
Ibid.
169
32
illicit substances across the Southwest border. Under Mayorkas and Biden’s policies, no
community is safe from the expanding reach of the cartels and the drugs they are trafficking.
Violence: Cartel and gang violence continues to be a growing problem in the United States.
Though it is less prevalent than in Mexico, direct cartel violence is well documented in the United
States.
In January 2023, six people, including a six-month-old baby and her teenage mother, were shot
dead in a house in the city of Goshen, California. Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux left no
ambiguity about who was responsible, saying, “I think it’s specifically connected to the cartel. The
level of violence ... this was not your run-of-the-mill low-end gang member.”170 Boudreaux also
said of the young mother murdered protecting her child, “I know for a fact this young lady was
running for her life. And I know for a fact that there was no reason to kill her—but they did.”171
His assessment of the cartel presence in California was sobering: “I can tell you, the cartels are
here. We have a very unsecure border right now—there’s a lot of back and forth when it comes to
the cartels and free movement up and down the state and across the border.”172
Charles Marino, a former DHS senior law enforcement advisor, recently said, “My expert opinion
is that we’re going to see an increase in cartel violence within the United States in all of its
forms.”173 Authorities in Texas have also been raising the alarm about cartel violence. In
November 2021, Texas law enforcement reported that Mexican cartels were murdering victims
and dumping their bodies on the American side of the border, with the Texas Rangers
investigating a range of cartel activities linked to the dead bodies.174 On Oct. 26, 2021, authorities
found a woman who had been raped and tortured before she was killed. Texas DPS’ Olivarez said
that cartels are “professional” and “very methodical” in their murderous actions, and that the
cartels come to the United States to kill people and then cross back over the border. He pointed
out that these murders send a message to rival cartels.175
Drugs coming from Mexico and beyond are being sold by the cartels to transnational and
American gangs, who effectively function as the cartels’ distribution network, and who then
engage in their own turf wars on the streets of American cities, leading to even further carnage
and devastation. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram has stated, “The Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels
use multi-city distribution networks, violent local street gangs, and individual dealers across the
United States to flood American communities with fentanyl and methamphetamine, drive
addiction, fuel violence, and kill Americans.”176 The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice
170
Kanishka Singh, “Six dead in California home shooting, including 6-month-old baby and her mother,” Reuters, January 17, 2023,
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/six-people-dead-california-home-shooting-including-six-month-old-baby-2023-01-16/.
171
Lee Brown, ‘Cartels are here’: California sheriff rips border crisis as details emerge on massacre of 6,” New York Post, January 19, 2023,
https://nypost.com/2023/01/19/california-sheriff-rips-border-crisis-as-details-emerge-on-massacre-of-6/.
172
Ibid.
173
Andrew Dorn, “Are Mexican cartels carrying out more violence on US soil?,” NewsNation, January 20, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/are-
mexican-cartels-carrying-out-more-violence-on-us-soil/.
174
Emily Crane, “Texas authorities claim Mexican cartels murdering people on US soil,” New York Post, November 12, 2021,
https://nypost.com/2021/11/12/texas-authorities-claim-mexican-cartels-murdering-people-on-us-soil/.
175
Ibid.
176
33
Services has also reported collaboration between the cartels and street gangs, noting, “Mexican
Cartels have continued their strategic relationship with traditional street gangs operating in the
United States.”177 One expert has noted how cartel violence often “will be subcontracted to local
street gangs, prison gangs, and local actors,” while others have reported, “[D]rug disputes that
ultimately stem from cartel activities may be attributed to domestic street gangs instead.”178
These gangs are also involved in other avenues of violence, including manufacturing illicit,
privately made firearms. In January 2023, for example, following an eight-month investigation,
the DOJ charged nine members of the Latin Kings gang in New Jersey with not just conspiracy to
distribute substances like fentanyl, but also with “manufacturing untraceable gun parts that could
be used to convert weapons for automatic firing.”179
In addition to the drug-related violence, senior Border Patrol officials have also acknowledged
that cartel and gang violence targeting illegal aliens themselves has been happening more
frequently inside the United States. During a May 2023 interview with the House Committee on
Homeland Security, the Border Patrol’s Heitke said:
“[W]e have seen considerably more bandit activity on our side, as well. … It’s individuals
coming up from Mexico and robbing the migrants as they’re moving through. And it’s a
combination of the individual smugglers wanting to make a little extra money. They’ll
have—it’s coordinated. So, they’re working together.
“But one of the foot guides, for example, will leave for a little while. They’ll leave the group
and say, ‘I’ll be back in a little bit.’ Two more individuals will come up and rob them and
leave, and then the smuggler will come back and move them on. It’s just a way of earning
extra money and preying on the remote areas with minimal law enforcement on either side
of the border. And most of the migrants have everything they own with them, so they’re
easy targets.”180
Human Trafficking: These groups do not simply smuggle illegal aliens across the Southwest
border—they are now engaged in transnational human trafficking operations worth billions of
dollars.181 Senior DHS officials have noted the cartels’ shift away from simply drug trafficking to
the insidious practice of human smuggling and trafficking. Blas Nuñez-Neto, DHS assistant
secretary for border and immigration policy, said on July 20, 2023:
“We see migrants now routinely paying smuggling organizations what are vast sums of
money for them—often more than $10,000 to $15,000—to facilitate their journey to the
177
State of Virginia, Department of Criminal Justice Services, Mexican Drug Cartels, March 2023, https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/training-events/mexican-drug-
cartels.
178
Andrew Dorn, “Are Mexican cartels carrying out more violence on US soil?,” NewsNation, January 20, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/are-
mexican-cartels-carrying-out-more-violence-on-us-soil/.
179
U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, Nine Men Charged with Roles in Gang-Led Drug and Gun
Trafficking Network, January 5, 2023, https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/nine-men-charged-roles-gang-led-drug-and-gun-trafficking-network.
180
Aaron Heitke, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 166, May 9, 2023.
181
Human trafficking and human smuggling are two different crimes. Human trafficking is a crime committed against another person that does not necessarily
require transportation or physical movement of that individual. For example, a victim of human trafficking may be coerced into forced labor at a marijuana grow
farm. In contrast, human smuggling is a crime committed in violation of a country’s immigration laws and requires the illegal transportation of a person across
an international border.
34
border. This is so lucrative, in fact, that we are now seeing the drug cartels increasingly
becoming a key player in not just collecting taxes for people who transit through their
territory, which is what we saw historically, but actually moving people and becoming
deeply involved in human smuggling, not just in Mexico, but throughout the region,
including, you know, in Colombia and the Darien region.”182
In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in April 2023, CIS’ Vaughan emphasized that
the resurgence of the violent gang MS-13 in the Washington, D.C.-metro area “has brought an
increase in cases of brutal sex trafficking in the area. The gang preys on young teenage girls who
run away from shelters, foster care, or broken homes.”183 Other organizations have noted how
MS-13 uses this trafficking to fund other aspects of its operations:
“MS-13 preys on the vulnerability of the unaccompanied minors; some have previously
suffered sexual abuse either in their home country or during the trip north; others lack a
community and do not speak English. Members of MS-13 seek out the vulnerable young
girls using violence and other coercive tactics to intimidate the girl into having sex for
money to help financially support the gang.”184
Guerra further described in March 2021 how the cartels use sex trafficking to enhance their profit
margins, explaining that for family units looking to illegally enter the United States, “If you can’t
afford it, and you have that little 15, 16-year-old child with you, well, guess what? Well, you’re
gonna go to Houston. And that little girl is gonna go to work in sex trafficking and that little girl is
going to pay off all your debt. That’s happening.”185
And these groups continue to deploy creative methods in their effort to evade law enforcement.
On June 14, 2023, the Border Patrol’s Good tweeted that Border Patrol agents and Texas DPS
officers had broken up a human smuggling operation involving three vehicles and 26 aliens. Two
of the vehicles being used by the smuggling groups were sprinter vans made to resemble FedEx
delivery trucks.186
Organized Retail Theft: According to a July 2023 press report, the cartels have expanded their
operations into mass-retail theft, “targeting big-box stores, luxury retail brands, and small
businesses, then selling the stolen goods online and laundering the profits through Chinese
brokers.”187 Per the Washington Examiner, the cartels “that have facilitated the greatest-ever
human smuggling operation across the U.S.-Mexico border over the past two years and
182
“Straining under the Backlog: Fixing a U.S. Immigration Court System in Crisis,” Migration Policy Institute, YouTube video, 26:27, July 20, 2023,
https://www.youtube.com/live/sA1fuW96GNo?feature=share&t=1587.
183
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement, Prepared Testimony of
Jessica M. Vaughan for The Biden Border Crisis: Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien Children, 118th Cong., 1st sess., April 26, 2023, 6,
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/vaughan-testimony.pdf.
184
“The Connection between the Mara Salvatrucha and Human Trafficking,” Human Trafficking Search, August 24, 2017,
https://humantraffickingsearch.org/the-connection-between-the-mara-salvatrucha-and-human-trafficking/.
185
Gabrielle Fonrouge, “Texas sheriff in charge of US-Mexico border says it’s ‘basically open,’ blames Biden,” New York Post, March 18, 2021,
https://nypost.com/2021/03/18/texas-sheriff-at-us-mexico-border-says-its-basically-open/.
186
Anthony “Scott” Good [@USBPChiefEPT], “Express Consequence Delivery! #SantaTeresa Station Anti-Smuggling Unit Agents along with @TxDPSWest
Intercepted a Smuggling Scheme Involving 26 Smuggled Migrants. Of the 3 Vehicles Involved, 2 Were Cloned FedEx Vans. The Smugglers Will Face Charges!
@cbp,” Tweet, Twitter, June 14, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChiefEPT/status/1669116247093686272.
187
Anna Giaritelli, “Mexican drug cartels are behind the surge in retail thefts,” The Washington Examiner, July 24, 2023,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/business/mexican-drug-cartels-behind-surge-in-retail-thefts.
35
simultaneously caused the fentanyl epidemic in America now have a hand in organized retail
crime.”188
According to HSI, “Organized retail theft results in $125.7 billion in lost economic activity each
year as criminals use e-commerce platforms to resell stolen merchandise.”189 And now the cartels
have extended their operations into this multi-billion-dollar, illicit business. HSI also revealed in
a June 2022 press release, “Recent investigations have also identified organized retail crime
schemes exploiting undocumented migrants forced to steal goods to pay back ‘coyotes’ who
smuggle them across international borders.”190
The cartels have expanded their operations into mass-retail theft to increase their profit margins. (Source:
Washington Examiner report)
Disorder in Border Towns: In March 2023, four Americans were attacked by members of the
Gulf Cartel in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas, with two of them, Shaeed Woodard and
Zindell Brown, fatally wounded in the incident.191 The group had traveled to Tamaulipas from
South Carolina in order for one member, LaTavia Washington, to receive a medical procedure.
Officials believe the group was fired upon and then abducted because the cartel believed they
were part of a rival Haitian smuggling group.192
Peter Yachmetz, a former hostage negotiator for the FBI, said following the events in Tamaulipas,
“The big takeout is the border is wide open, and drug cartels are operating and controlling the
border. Do not go through any of these border crossings. It is a known ‘Do Not Travel’ zone.”193 In
fact, Tamaulipas’ official “Do Not Travel” designation from the State Department puts it on par
with nations like Afghanistan and Syria.194
The incident underscored just how unstable the cartels have made the region, on both sides of the
border. That same month, shocking video emerged of hundreds of illegal aliens rushing across the
188
Ibid.
189
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, Newsroom, HSI New Orleans launches multistate Organized Retail
Crime Alliance, July 19, 2023, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsi-new-orleans-launches-multistate-organized-retail-crime-alliance.
190
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, Newsroom, HSI, ACAMS take aim at organized retail crime, June 1,
2022, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsi-acams-take-aim-organized-retail-crime.
191
Noe Torres, Sarah Morland and Dave Graham, “Five men arrested in Mexico over killings of Americans,” Reuters, March 10, 2023,
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/five-people-mexico-held-over-killings-americans-state-prosecutor-2023-03-10/.
192
Josh Campbell et al., “Cartel suspected of American kidnappings issues apology letter,” CNN, March 10, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/09/us/mexico-
matamoros-americans-kidnapped-thursday/index.html.
193
Antonio Planas, “Mexico kidnapping was ‘difficult to prevent’ despite known dangers in border regions,” NBC News, March 7, 2023,
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mexico-kidnapping-danger-border-region-rcna73888.
194
U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, Travel Advisories, accessed on July 19, 2023,
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/.
36
Paso Del Norte International Bridge connecting El Paso with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, “posing a
potential threat to make a mass entry” into the United States, according to CBP.195
Texas DPS’ Olivarez later said that this was the result of cartel efforts to distract and undermine
law enforcement: “As it is, Border Patrol is overwhelmed, they’re tied up in processing. So, they
want to expose more vulnerable gaps along the border, so they can bring across criminals,
fugitives or drugs, whatever the case may be.”196
WATCH: Hundreds of People Storm Bridge Leading to El Paso

In August 2022, four Mexican border cities—Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito and Ensenada—erupted
in violence when gang members targeted civilians and demolished stores and cars to send a
message to authorities cracking down on the gangs.197 Tijuana is a prime corridor for drug-
trafficking, with various groups, including CJNG and Sinaloa, battling for control of the city.198
Around the same time, 600 Mexican troops were sent to Juarez to combat cartel activity, shutting
down many schools in the area.199
195
“Agents stop crowd at Texas border crossing amid asylum woes,” The Associated Press, March 13, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/migrants-bridge-el-paso-
mexico-customs-d414138040bb78229d3cfb6fc1793b05.
196
Elizabeth Heckman, “Mexican cartels' social media misinformation blamed for rush of migrants to Texas border bridge,” Fox News, March 14, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/media/mexican-cartels-social-media-misinformation-blamed-rush-migrants-texas-border-bridge. Full quote in the second embedded
video in the article.
197
“Mexico: Gang violence erupts in US border cities,” Deutsche Welle, August 13, 2022, https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-gang-violence-erupts-in-us-border-
cities/a-62800685.
198
Ibid.
199
Ibid.
37
11 people were killed in a wave of violence instigated by gangs in cities along the Southwest border in August 2022.
(Source: Deutsche Welle)
In the Mexican state of Chihuahua, meanwhile, the murder rate is surging due to “cartel
infighting for control of migrant smuggling.”200 Per Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui,
“It is clear to us what is going on. Criminal groups are having disputes and there is an increase in
homicides related to people-trafficking. They are disputing control (of territory) and that has led
to people being murdered for being involved in people-trafficking.”201 Most of these murders are
taking place in Juarez, just across the border from El Paso.202
The city of Laredo, Texas, was put on edge in March 2022, after the Mexican border city of Nuevo
Laredo was rocked by violence following the arrest of a cartel leader.203 Two international bridges
into Mexico were closed as a precaution, and law enforcement was put on alert, in another
example of how cartel and gang violence impacts Americans even when it occurs on the other side
of the border.204
The Connection Between the Cartels, Gangs, and Open Borders

“MS-13, other gang members exploit migrant wave to cross into U.S.,” reads one headline from
May 2021.205 Unfortunately, this reporting is altogether accurate. It is not just the cartels who
have taken advantage of Mayorkas’ open-borders policies—so have the transnational gangs
seeking to expand their operations and influence. These gangs are responsible for human
trafficking, drug smuggling, and criminal violence.
200
Julian Resendiz, “Murders up as cartels fight for control of migrant smuggling in Chihuahua,” Border Report, April 12, 2023,
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/murders-up-as-cartels-fight-for-control-of-migrant-smuggling-in-chihuahua/.
201
Ibid.
202
Ibid.
203
Sandra Sanchez, “Nuevo Laredo violence shakes sister city of Laredo, Texas, after cartel leader ‘The Egg’ arrested,” Border Report, March 17, 2022,
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/nuevo-laredo-violence-shakes-sister-city-of-laredo-texas-after-cartel-leader-the-egg-arrested/.
204
Ibid.
205
Isabel Vincent, “MS-13, other gang members exploit migrant wave to cross into US,” New York Post, May 1, 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/ms-13-
other-gang-members-exploit-migrant-wave-to-cross-into-us/.
38
On April 30, 2021, the Border Patrol’s Hudak tweeted that gang members “attempt to evade
arrest by exploiting the influx of migrants attempting to enter our country.”206 CBP statistics
show that the main gangs Border Patrol encounters include MS-13, Paisas, 18th Street, Surenos
(Sur-13), and the Latin Kings.207
These gangs work closely with the cartels. Texas DPS Director Steve McGraw said earlier this year
that the gangs “work to support cartel operations on both sides of the border. They certainly do it,
they operate in Mexico and they operate on this side too in terms of stash houses where there’s
drugs and people. They extort people on the south of the border and extort them when they get to
this side of the border.”208 Per ICE, “Transnational criminal gangs account for a large percentage
of narcotics trafficking in communities throughout the United States.”209
According to Texas DPS veteran Jones in his July 2023 testimony before the House Committee
on Homeland Security:
The cartels “contract directly with U.S.-based street gangs and what we call Tier-1 gangs.
Those are gangs which impact multiple regions in our country. They work directly with the
cartels, and today it is very important to understand, your U.S.-based street gangs are
working side by side contracting with the cartels. … So, when you wonder today why you
are being overrun with drugs, it is because the Tier-1 gangs and U.S.-based street gangs are
contracting and working directly with these cartels…”210
Per one report, “Cartels have been doubling down on their efforts, including recruiting American
street gangs to act as distribution centers in major urban areas…Cartel recruitment efforts are
ramping up in the U.S. as they wrangle members of notoriously violent American gangs like the
Bloods, the Crips and the Aryan Brotherhood to work both sides of the border.”211
Texas DPS estimates there are more than 100,000 gang members in the Lone Star State, many of
whom are connected to Mexican cartels.212 In California, the Mexican Mafia maintains
documented ties to cartels.213 The Sinaloa and Gulf cartels are operating in cities like Chicago,
providing drugs that are then sold and distributed by the violent street gangs in those locales.214
206
Laredo Sector Border Patrol [@USBPChiefLRT], “5 Gang Members in 7 Days! #Laredo Sector #USBP Agents Arrested a Total of 5 Gang Members in the
Last Week, Including an #ms13 & Two 18th Street Gang Members. They Attempt to Evade Arrest by Exploiting the Influx of Migrants Attempting to Enter Our
Country. #bordersecurity,” Tweet, Twitter, April 30, 2021, https://twitter.com/USBPChiefLRT/status/1388123097568403468.
207
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Newsroom, CBP Enforcement Statistics Fiscal Year 2023, August 18, 2023,
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics.
208
Cecilia Treviño, “DPS Director Says Mexican Cartels Recruit U.S. Gangs,” KGNS TV, March 19, 2023, https://www.kgns.tv/2023/03/19/dps-director-says-
mexican-cartels-recruit-us-gangs/.
209
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Combating Gangs, August 4, 2022,
https://www.ice.gov/features/gangs.
210
211
Ali Bradley, “Cartels Recruit American Gangs in Smuggling Efforts,” NewsNation, March 21, 2023, https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-
news/immigration/border-coverage/cartels-recruit-american-gangs/.
212
Ibid.
213
Ibid.
214
Ibid.
39
However, despite the carnage being inflicted by these groups, the number of illegal alien gang
members being removed from the United States has decreased under Mayorkas’ leadership. In
FY19, ICE removed 5,497 known or suspected gang members, compared to just 2,667 in FY22.215
MS-13—The World’s Most Violent Gang Thrives on Mayorkas’ Watch

MS-13 is perhaps the most notorious of the transnational gangs operating in the United States,
and has been designated a transnational criminal organization by the U.S. government.216 The
gang’s motto of “mata, viola, controla” (“kill, rape, control”) accurately describes the group’s
activity within the United States.
MS-13 “has a reputation for particularly violent criminal activity.”217 Its members regularly
commit crimes like “extortion, drug distribution, prostitution, robbery, and murder, as well as in
more transnational illicit activity such as drug trafficking and human smuggling and trafficking.
While some of the illegal activities help support the gang’s criminal finances, others facilitate the
maintenance of territory as well as gang brand and unity.”218 The gang also plagues Central
American communities in the United States by extorting businesses, providing drugs to addicts,
recruiting members of the community into its ranks, and inciting violence.219
For example, in February 2023, 15-year-old Limber Lopez Funez from Frederick, Maryland, went
missing.220 Two months later, his body was discovered in a Maryland state park. In May, five
illegal aliens under the age of 30 were arrested and charged with Lopez Funez’s murder. All five
suspects were found to be MS-13 gang members.221
Additionally, many MS-13 members present in the United States are here illegally, with the gang
historically taking advantage of “weaknesses in border enforcement policies.”222 In October 2020,
the DOJ under the Trump administration released a report highlighting its efforts to combat
TCOs, including MS-13. In the report, the DOJ noted 74 percent of 749 MS-13 members
prosecuted by the department since 2016 were “unlawfully present” in the United States, with
another 15 percent unable to have their immigration status verified.223
215
See U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Fiscal Year 2019
Enforcement and Removal Operations Report, 22, https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Document/2019/eroReportFY2019.pdf; and U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE Annual Report Fiscal Year 2022, December 30, 2022, 24,
https://www.ice.gov/doclib/eoy/iceAnnualReportFY2022.pdf.
216
U.S. Department of the Treasury, Treasury Sanctions Latin American Criminal Organization, October 11, 2012, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-
releases/tg1733.
217
U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, MS-13 in the United States and Federal Law Enforcement Efforts, by Kristin Finklea, R45292,
August 20, 2018, 6, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/homesec/R45292.pdf.
218
Ibid.
219
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Combating Gangs, August 4, 2022,
https://www.ice.gov/features/gangs.
220
“15-year-old from Frederick missing for days,” FOX 5 DC, March 2, 2023, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/15-year-old-from-frederick-missing-for-days.
221
“5 Immigrants Charged in Murder of Missing 15-Year-Old Frederick Boy,” FOX 5 DC, May 31, 2023, https://www.fox5dc.com/news/5-immigrants-charged-
in-murder-of-missing-15-year-old-frederick-boy.
222
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Department of Justice Releases Report on its Efforts to Disrupt, Dismantle, and Destroy MS-13, October
21, 2020, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-releases-report-its-efforts-disrupt-dismantle-and-destroy-ms-13.
223
Ibid.
40
The gang continues to try to exploit

the porous Southwest border. In
FY22, agents arrested more than 300
MS-13 members attempting to sneak
into the United States.224 Through
July 2023, the Border Patrol had
apprehended another 156 members
of the gang.225 On Aug. 16, 2023,
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens
tweeted that Border Patrol agents in
both Laredo and Miami had recently
arrested “violent gang members,”
with one MS-13 member assaulting
and injuring two agents in the Miami
incident.226 In May 2023, ICE
officials in New York conducted
operations over a three-day period
targeting “over a dozen individuals
who have reentered the United States
unlawfully—some of whom are
connected to the MS-13 gang,” and per one press report, “Officials told NewsNation that many of
the people they’re arresting this week gain entry through the southern border.”227
Officials do not know how many MS-13 members have entered the United States un-apprehended
or undetected since Mayorkas took office. However, given the skyrocketing number of gotaways
and the tendency of bad actors like violent criminals and gang members to pay more to enter the
country without being caught, it is potentially a number that should cause great concern.228
Recent events demonstrate why Americans should be concerned about MS-13 members among
the historic number of gotaways. In August 2023, ICE arrested MS-13 gang member Juan Carlos
Portillo in Alabama.229 At the time of his apprehension, Portillo was on El Salvador’s “100 Most
224
Anna Giaritelli, “More than 300 MS-13 Gang Members Arrested at Southern Border in Fiscal Year ’22,” The Washington Examiner, October 24, 2022,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/more-than-300-ms-13-members-arrested-fy-22.
225
226
Chief Jason Owens [@USBPChief], “8/14: USBP agents in Laredo & Miami arrested violent gang members. During the arrest in Miami, an MS-13 gang
member assaulted & injured two of our agents. That subject is now in custody & facing prosecution for Reentry & for Assault on a Federal Officer, both
felonies.,” Tweet, Twitter, August 16, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChief/status/1691797407753781421.
227
Dray Clark and Ava Pittman, “New York ICE operation targets wanted illegal migrants,” NewsNation, May 5, 2023,
https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/new-york-ice-operation-dozen-individuals-ms-13/.
228
Bethany Blankley, “Arrests of noncitizens with criminal convictions at border at record highs,” The Center Square, August 3, 2023,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/arrests-of-noncitizens-with-criminal-convictions-at-border-at-record-highs. Former CBP Acting Commissioner
Morgan quoted: “It’s common sense. There have been more than 1.7 million total gotaways in the past 29 months. The number of [murderers], rapists,
pedophiles, aggravated felons, and gang members among the gotaways who now call the U.S. home is staggering and should terrify us all.” Multiple Border
Patrol chief patrol agents also told the Committee in transcribed interviews that they were concerned about threats to public safety entering through the
Southwest border as gotaways.
229
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Newsroom, ERO New Orleans arrests gang member on El Salvador’s
100 Most Wanted list, August 14, 2023, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ero-new-orleans-arrests-gang-member-el-salvadors-100-most-wanted-list.
41
Wanted” list for a variety of heinous crimes, including aggravated kidnapping, attempted
aggravated homicide, and aggravated homicide.230 He had previously been apprehended and
subsequently removed from the United States after crossing illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, in
December 2022, but later reentered the country on an unknown date in an unknown location—in
other words, as a gotaway.231
The historic influx of UACs is another area in which Mayorkas’ policies have uniquely benefitted
the gang, and almost certainly served to swell its ranks. Between May 2017 and March 2018, for
example, ICE conducted an ongoing enforcement effort called “Operation Matador.”232 During
the course of the operation, ICE arrested 475 gang members and affiliates, including 274
members of MS-13—99 of those 274 had entered the country as UACs.233
During a law enforcement roundtable hosted at the White House in 2018, Angel Melendez, HSI
special agent in charge for New York, said that ICE routinely finds that 30 percent of MS-13
members they arrest came into the country as UACs.234 Melendez also provided analysis that
demonstrates the UAC pipeline MS-13 can exploit today at far greater scale.
He pointed out that in FY17, 40,810 UACs were referred by DHS to the Department of Health and
Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to be resettled in the United States
with sponsors, and that of this population, 21,881 were from Northern Triangle countries, male,
and the right age for gang recruitment (13-17).235 Melendez also briefed that MS-13 was “looking
at these 21,000 unaccompanied alien children that came into the states as potential recruits to
continue to fill in their ranks.”236
By comparison, in FY21 and FY22, DHS referred approximately 250,000 UACs to HHS for
placement, and in FY22, 72 percent of all UACs referred were over 14 years old, and 64 percent
were male.237 Simple math makes clear that Mayorkas and the Biden administration’s policies
have almost certainly brought a flood of new potential recruits right to MS-13’s doorstep.
230
Ibid.
231
Ibid.
232
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Joint Operation nets 24 transnational gang members, 475 total arrests
under Operation Matador, March 29, 2018, https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/joint-operation-nets-24-transnational-gang-members-475-total-arrests-under-
operation.
233
Ibid.
234
“WATCH: President Trump holds law enforcement roundtable on MS-13 at the White House,” PBS NewsHour, YouTube video, 18:54, February 6,
2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVYeA9ognyU&t=1134s.
235
See “WATCH: President Trump holds law enforcement roundtable on MS-13 at the White House,” PBS NewsHour, YouTube video, 17:52, February 6,
2018, https://youtu.be/lVYeA9ognyU?t=1072; and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Press Office, Fact
Sheet: Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program, July 5, 2023, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/uac-program-fact-sheet.pdf.
236
“WATCH: President Trump holds law enforcement roundtable on MS-13 at the White House,” PBS NewsHour, YouTube video, 18:14, February 6, 2018,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVYeA9ognyU&t=1093s.
237
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Press Office, Fact Sheet: Unaccompanied Children (UC) Program,
July 5, 2023, https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/uac-program-fact-sheet.pdf.
42
A recent grand jury investigation in Florida into the Biden administration’s irresponsible
handling of the flood of UACs across the border found that a growing number of gang members
are being brought into the United States under the guise of being UACs:
“According to the testimony of the Border Patrol’s acting chief, even as far back as 2017 it
was known that at least 59 UAC had been identified as members of the MS-13 gang. That
number has increased significantly; we received testimony that other gangs likewise send
members and even have UAC members graduate to adulthood and apply to sponsor other
UAC members. Entire separate facilities were required at some ORR shelters to house
those UAC who were flashing gang signs, engaging in fights, and making threats due to
gang affiliation.”238
238
State of Florida Supreme Court, Twenty-First Statewide Grand Jury Regarding Unaccompanied Alien Children, Third Presentment, No. SC22-796, March 29,
2023, 15, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23734272-3rd-presentment-of-21st-swgj.
43
SECTION 3: THE SURGE OF NATIONAL
SECURITY THREATS ACROSS THE BORDER
Section 3: The Surge of National Security Threats Across the

Border
The Biden-Mayorkas border crisis represents an unmitigated national security threat. It is well
documented that cartels, human smugglers, and violent gangs have taken full advantage of
Mayorkas and Biden’s open-borders policies in pursuit of their malicious ambitions—but they are
not the only ones.
Individuals from more than 160 countries have been encountered by Border Patrol agents since
January 2021,239 including individuals from countries that sponsor terrorism or are major U.S.
adversaries. According to DHS’ Nuñez-Neto, an “enormous proportion” of the individuals CBP
now encounters are not from Mexico or the Northern Triangle at all, in stark contrast to the
majority of encounters in previous years.240 John Modlin, Tucson Sector’s chief patrol agent, told
Committee staff in July 2023, “This flow of nontraditional migrants was what [the Yuma Sector]
was dealing with a year ago—a lot of Chinese, a lot of…nontraditional migrants. Not Mexico, not
Northern Triangle, just the rest of the world, basically. Now we are seeing that [in Tucson Sector].
It’s not uncommon for one of these large groups to be made up of 12 to 15 different
nationalities.”241
Individuals on the Terror Watchlist Coming Across in Record Numbers

Perhaps most troubling is that an increasing number of those coming across the Southwest
border represent potential national security threats. Since FY21, the Border Patrol has recorded a
historic number of apprehensions of individuals who appear on the Terrorist Screening Data Set
(TSDS) since the start of FY21. The TSDS, also known as the “terror watchlist,” is the “U.S.
government’s database that contains sensitive information on terrorist identities.”242 The TSDS
originally provided information on known or suspected terrorists, but now includes information
about individuals who represent a potential threat to the United States.
239
Robert Sherman, “Migrants From More Than 160 Countries Encountered At Border,” NewsNation, October 6, 2022, https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-
news/immigration/migrants-from-more-than-160-countries-encountered-at-border/.
240
“Straining under the Backlog: Fixing a U.S. Immigration Court System in Crisis,” Migration Policy Institute, YouTube video, 56:04, July 20, 2023,
https://www.youtube.com/live/sA1fuW96GNo?feature=share&t=3364.
241
John Modlin, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 133, July 26, 2023.
242
44
(Source: CBP TSDS Encounters data)
From FY17–FY20, between ports of entry along the Southwest and northern borders, the Border
Patrol apprehended just 14 individuals whose names were on the TSDS, with most of them
attempting to enter through the Southwest border.243 In comparison, 263 individuals whose
names appear on the TSDS have been apprehended since FY21—259 of them along the Southwest
border.244 More than half of these individuals (146) have been apprehended at the Southwest
border this fiscal year alone, far surpassing the previous record of 98 set in FY22.245
Shortly after the Title 42 public health order expired, CBP reported multiple apprehensions of
individuals on the TSDS, including an Afghan national apprehended near San Diego,246 a
Pakistani national near Ajo Station, Arizona,247 and five more individuals caught in the Tucson
Sector.248
This historic number of TSDS apprehensions represent just the individuals Border Patrol agents
have been able to catch. It is unknown how many additional national security threats have been
among the approximately 1.5 million known gotaways that have evaded Border Patrol altogether.
Richard Wiles, sheriff of El Paso County, has said the open border “is ripe for terrorists and
criminals to simply walk across our border and do harm to our citizens.”249 When asked if he was
concerned about the public safety implications of the gotaways in his sector, Sean McGoffin, chief
243
Ibid.
244
Ibid.
245
Ibid.
246
Danielle Dawson, “Afghan on terror watch list reportedly arrested near San Diego border,” Fox 5 San Diego, May 15, 2023,
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/end-of-title-42/afghan-on-terror-watch-list-reportedly-arrested-near-san-diego-border/.
247
Anna Giaritelli, “Pakistani illegal immigrant on FBI terror list arrested at border day after Title 42 ended,” The Washington Examiner, May 15, 2023,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pakistani-illegal-immigrant-fbi-terror-list-arrested-border.
248
Randy Clark and Bob Price, “EXCLUSIVE: Five Migrants on Terror Watch List Arrested near AZ Border Post-Title 42,” Breitbart News, May 14, 2023,
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/05/14/exclusive-five-migrants-on-terror-watch-list-arrested-near-az-border-post-title-42/.
249
Jamel Valencia, “El Paso County Sheriff sounds alarm over Border Patrol overwhelmed due to migrants,” CBS 4 El Paso, September 15, 2022,
https://cbs4local.com/richard-wiles.
45
patrol agent for the Big Bend Sector, told the House Committee on Homeland Security in April
2023, “Absolutely. I don’t think anybody in law enforcement wouldn’t be.”250
The Border Patrol’s Owens told Committee staff during a May 2023 interview that he was
“absolutely” concerned that the high flow of illegal aliens through the Del Rio Sector was
impeding his agents’ ability to reduce the number of gotaways:
“[I]f my men and women are stuck in a humanitarian effort of processing these folks, they
cannot be in two places at once. They cannot be out on patrol. And where I need them out
on patrol is to not only account for those gotaways but to reduce them, where possible.
Everything revolves, as I said before, around having those men and women on the ground
doing the job. … I need them out doing the job that they were hired to do. And where
they’re doing something else, they cannot be there.”251
“Anytime somebody chooses to evade capture, as I said before, you have to ask yourself why, and
is that individual a cause of greater concern? What do they have to hide that they’re willing to go
through such lengths to try and evade capture? Those are the ones that—especially if they are
among the gotaways—that keep us up at night,” he later added.252
Finally, as former ICE Acting Director Tom Homan has pointed out, it is reasonable to assume
that potential national security threats are among the gotaways entering the country, because
they do not want to be apprehended by the Border Patrol. He told Fox News in March 2023:
“After 9/11, we created all these databases so if you want to come to the United States, get a
plane ticket or a visa, you gotta go through all this vetting through various databases. Why
would any terrorist put themselves in a position to be vetted through these databases when
you can simply get to Mexico, cross the Southwest border like 1.3 million others did, and
not get arrested?”253
Some individuals have already tried to take advantage of the open border to commit acts of
terrorism, including Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab. Shihab came to the United States on a non-
immigrant visa, but was charged with planning to smuggle terrorists into the country through the
open Southwest border in an attempt to assassinate former President George W. Bush.254
Individuals on the TSDS have also been released into the United States after being apprehended.
In April 2022, a Colombian man named Isnardo Garcia-Amado was released into the interior
with a GPS monitoring device via the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program.255 Three days
250
Sean McGoffin, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 39, April 25, 2023.
251
252
Ibid, 128.
253
“Tom Homan: The southern border ‘scares the hell out of me’,” Fox News, Fox News video, 01:35, March 20, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6322980718112.
254
U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, Ohio man charged with aiding and abetting plot to murder former
President, May 24, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/ohio-man-charged-aiding-and-abetting-plot-murder-former-president.
255
Adam Sabes and Bill Melugin, “Border Patrol released suspected terrorist who crossed into U.S. illegally, ICE took weeks to rearrest him,” Fox News, May
23, 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/us/border-patrol-released-suspected-terrorist-ice-rearrest-weeks.
46
after his release, the FBI flagged his name as a hit on the terror watchlist, but ICE did not rearrest
him until almost two weeks later. He had traveled from Arizona to Florida in that time.256
In June 2023, the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a shocking report showing
that in April 2022, CBP officials had released an illegal alien who was ultimately found to have
been on the terror watchlist.257 On April 17, 2022, the alien was apprehended with family
members in Yuma, Arizona. He was initially determined to be an “inconclusive Terrorist
Watchlist match” based on data provided by CBP to the FBI, and subsequently released April 19.
Two days later, when the alien and his family attempted to fly from California to Tampa, Florida,
the FBI received more information from TSA showing the alien was actually on the terror
watchlist. Two weeks later, ICE arrested the alien.258
According to the OIG, “CBP apprehended and subsequently released a migrant without providing
information requested by the [Terrorist Screening Center] that would have confirmed they were a
positive match with the Terrorist Watchlist.”259 This potential terrorist was released before proper
vetting was completed because, according to Border Patrol agents at the Yuma centralized
processing center, “the Yuma CPC was over capacity following an increase in apprehensions,
which created pressure to quickly process migrants and decreased the time available to review
each file.”260
It is deeply troubling that individuals on the terror watchlist are being released before they have
been fully vetted simply because CBP officials feel pressured to release them. Ultimately, it is
Mayorkas’ policies that are to blame, as record numbers of illegal aliens continue to flow across
the Southwest border in response to his mass “catch-and-release” policies.
Additionally, one recent report makes clear that those connected to terror groups have been able
to take advantage of a Southwest border increasingly left vulnerable by Mayorkas’ policies. On
Aug. 29, 2023, CNN reported that a large group of Uzbek nationals were smuggled across the
Southwest border earlier in 2023 by a smuggling network that contained at least one individual
“with ties to ISIS.”261 At the time of CNN’s report, federal law enforcement had not yet located all
these individuals who had illegally crossed into the United States, and more than 15 of those who
had been apprehended were “still under scrutiny by the FBI as possible criminal threats.”262
256
Ibid.
257
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General, CBP Released a Migrant on a Terrorist Watchlist, and ICE Faced Information
Sharing Challenges Planning and Conducting the Arrest (REDACTED), OIG-23-31, June 28, 2023, 3, https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2023-
07/OIG-23-31-Jun23-Redacted.pdf.
258
Ibid.
259
Ibid., p. 9.
260
Ibid., p. 12.
261
Katie Bo Lillis, et. al., “Exclusive: Smuggler with ties to ISIS helped migrants enter US from Mexico, raising alarm bells across government,” CNN, August
29, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/politics/migrants-us-southern-border-smuggler-isis-ties/index.html.
262
Ibid.
47
Perhaps these examples

demonstrate why the Laredo
Sector’s Martinez, in the context of
national security, told the House
Committee on Homeland Security,
“every apprehension worries me,”
because agents “never know…who
we’ll run into. One minute we’re
dealing with a child and the next
we’re dealing with an adult. We
don’t know what their intentions
are.”263 Mayorkas has lost control of the border, and created an environment in which nefarious
individuals with the intention of doing Americans harm can enter the country at will.
Potential National Security Threats Arriving from Other Nations
It is not just potential terrorists that are flooding across the border, however. Waves of
individuals from adversarial countries like China and Russia continue to flow across, as well.
Then-Border Patrol Chief Ortiz tweeted on June 9, 2023, that from FY22 to FY23, Border Patrol
agents had recorded surges of illegal aliens from China and Afghanistan in excess of 1000
percent.264
The number of Chinese and Russian nationals crossing illegally has skyrocketed in the last two
years. This fiscal year alone, the Border Patrol has recorded 17,678 apprehensions of Chinese
nationals just at the Southwest border.265 In all of FY20, that number was 1,236, just 323 in FY21,
and 1,970 in FY22.266 In the same timeframe, the Border Patrol has also apprehended more than
7,000 Russians illegally crossing the Southwest border, compared to 24 in FY20, 509 in FY21,
and 5,197 in FY22.267
The surge in apprehensions of Chinese nationals at the Southwest border has placed a substantial
strain on CBP officials. The Border Patrol’s Chavez said in March 2023 that apprehensions of
Chinese nationals in FY23 in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had increased more than 900 percent
compared to FY22.268 She tweeted that the surge was “creating a strain on our workforce due to
the complexities of the language barrier & lengthens the processing.”269 Through July 2023,
263
Joel Martinez, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 27-28, June 1, 2023.
264
Chief Jason Owens [@USBPChief], “We Have Seen an Increase of over 1000% from Some Countries. While We Work Diligently to Repatriate Migrants
from These Countries, We Still Have Challenges with Countries’ Governments to Get Working Programs in Place to Repatriate All Those We Apprehend.,”
Tweet, Twitter, June 9, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChief/status/1667215420984573960.
265
266
Ibid.
267
Ibid.
268
Sandra Sanchez, “South Texas Sees Surge of Chinese Nationals Crossing Border Illegally, Chief Says,” Border Report, March 20, 2023,
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/south-texas-sees-surge-of-chinese-migrants-crossing-border-illegally-chief-says/.
269
Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez [@USBPChiefRGV], “RGV Continues to Lead the Nation in Chinese Migrant Encounters. In FY23, There Have Been
1,577 Apprehensions-91% Being Single Adults. A 920% Increase Compared to FY22 Creating a Strain on Our Workforce Due to the Complexities of the
Language Barrier & Lengthens the Processing.,” Tweet, Twitter, March 16, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChiefRGV/status/1636489039917219840.
48
Border Patrol apprehensions of Chinese nationals along the Southwest border exceeded FY22
apprehensions of the same demographic by almost 800 percent—the overwhelming majority of
them single adults.270
(Source: CBP Nationwide Encounters data)
Chinese and Russian nationals are of particular concern, given those nations’ status as the United
States’ most significant adversaries and the threat they pose to America’s national security. Fox
News’ Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin reported in February 2023 that Chinese nationals are
typically processed for expedited removal, “unless they claim to have a credible fear of
persecution if returned to the country—where the Chinese Communist Party holds power.”271
Consequently, sources told Shaw and Melugin, “many are claiming that fear and are subsequently
being released into the U.S. on their own recognizance and with a notice to appear for a court date
for their immigration hearings.”272
It is possible that many of these individuals are fleeing the authoritarian, repressive regimes in
their home countries. Some of them may even qualify for asylum, unlike the vast majority of those
who are crossing illegally for economic reasons or to flee general violence in their home
countries.273 Notably, however, Chief Patrol Agent Good told the House Committee on Homeland
Security in June 2023 that based on his observations, the “typical reason” given by Chinese
nationals for entering illegally was “the same as most of the migrants—for work or a better life.”274
270
271
Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin, “Border Patrol Apprehensions of Chinese Nationals at Southern Border up 800%: Source,” Fox News, February 9, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-apprehensions-chinese-nationals-southern-border-800-source.
272
Ibid.
273
Members of the House Committee on Homeland Security were given a bipartisan classified briefing on July 27, 2023, by multiple CBP officials. In this
briefing, officials stated that some of the Chinese nationals apprehended illegally crossing the border presented they were fleeing from oppression by the Chinese
Communist Party, or taking advantage of relaxed COVID-19 restrictions.
274
49
The threat to national security lies not just in the fact that these individuals are crossing illegally
to begin with, putting undue strain on Border Patrol agents, but that CBP and other federal
agencies simply do not have the ability to properly screen them before they are released into the
interior. As the crisis continues, and agents are forced to continue rapidly processing and
releasing those they encounter, the possibility of bad actors from these countries being released
into American communities will only increase.
It is simply unknown how many of those released into the interior have sinister intentions. What
is known, however, is that some unquestionably do. In an astounding revelation on June 14,
2023, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Green revealed that senior Border Patrol
sources had confirmed that some of the Chinese nationals apprehended in recent months at the
Southwest border “have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation
Army (PLA).”275
Russia has been suspected of using similar tactics on the borders of European nations for its own
ends, smuggling operatives in amongst the flow of migrants between these states. A 2021
Newsweek report noted, “NATO allies on its Baltic front lines fear that Russia and Belarus are
exploiting the flow of thousands of migrants into the European Union (EU)—perhaps even as
cover for their agents—to infiltrate and destabilize Western democracies, and threaten exiled
dissidents.”276
275
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Chairman Green: “Alejandro Mayorkas Has Been Derelict in His Duty as the
United States Secretary of Homeland Security,” 118th Cong., 1st sess., June 14, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/2023/06/14/chairman-green-alejandro-
mayorkas-has-been-derelict-in-his-duty-as-the-united-states-secretary-of-homeland-security/.
276
David Brennan, “NATO Allies Fear Russia, Belarus Using Migrant Chaos to Destabilize Europe, Hide Agents,” Newsweek, October 19, 2021,
https://www.newsweek.com/nato-allies-fear-russia-belarus-migrant-chaos-hide-agents-destabilize-europe-1640303.
50
Moscow, however, is not the only American adversary using migration flows for its own sinister
purposes. In the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela has done the same thing. During a June 2023
hearing held by the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism,
Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, Christopher Hernandez-Roy of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) testified that Venezuela had been known to embed spies in the flow
of individuals into neighboring Colombia to “harass and persecute” those opposed to the Maduro
regime. Such conduct, he said, raises questions about what other U.S. adversaries are doing to
take advantage of the porous Southwest border:
“Thus, a U.S. adversary has taken advantage of this human wave to conceal the entry of
spies into a traditional U.S. ally. This begs the question of what more sophisticated U.S.
adversaries like China and Russia might be doing to take advantage of the historic
migration flows across the U.S. southern border.”277
During the same hearing, Elaine Dezenski, former DHS acting assistant secretary for policy, was
asked whether policymakers should assume China is taking advantage of the porous Southwest
border. She responded, “I think we should assume that any vulnerabilities at our southern border
are open for authoritarian influence of many kinds. I think that’s a safe assumption. If the gaps
are there, then those who are working against us are going to use them to their advantage.”278
According to Dezenski, finding the national security risks among the millions of illegal aliens
crossing the border is a “needle in the haystack problem” and that the United States has “an
identity management problem at the border” that is only “going to become more and more
difficult.”279
277
“Countering Threats Posed by Nation-State Actors in Latin America to U.S. Homeland Security,” Homeland Security Committee Events, YouTube video,
31:40, June 21, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/live/riLhJjhoIkk?feature=share&t=1892.
278
279
51
SECTION 4: IRRESPONSIBLE USE OF
FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL
Section 4: Irresponsible Use of Federal Law Enforcement

Personnel
The massive influx of illegal aliens on Mayorkas’ watch has put a tremendous strain on CBP
personnel and resources. As a result, federal law enforcement personnel from around the country
have been diverted from their vital responsibilities in order to support operations on the
Southwest border—often in simple administrative capacities.
Redeploying Border Patrol Agents from the Northern Border

One of DHS’ more controversial personnel shifts has been the deployment of Border Patrol agents
from the northern border to the Southwest border. According to CBP, between October 2020-
April 2023, thousands of Border Patrol agents and CBP officers were temporarily relocated from
the northern border to the Southwest border.280 Deployments of CBP officials, in particular,
increased substantially from FY22 to FY23, 281 likely to further enable CBP to more rapidly
process and release illegal aliens into the United States. In 2022, per a DHS spokesperson, “at the
peak of deployments, 464 [Border Patrol] agents were deployed from northern border sectors.”282
It should be noted that the Committee was provided the specific numbers of deployments for each
agency, by year, but was prohibited from publishing them in this report by an arbitrary ‘For
Official Use Only’ marking on the data.
After DHS confirmed the personnel policy in early 2022, Texas Rep. Cuellar criticized the policy,
saying, “It’s almost like bringing people so they can be more efficient in allowing the migrants to
come into the United States… It’s ‘how do we move the migrants faster from the border out into
the interior?’”283
In FY20, the number of Border Patrol agents assigned to the northern border totaled around
2,000, while around 17,000 were serving on the Southwest border.284 The Border Patrol’s Good,
who previously served in the Grand Forks Sector along the northern border, told the House
Committee on Homeland Security in June 2023 that sending agents to the Southwest border, and
even having them help with processing remotely, had an impact on operations at the northern
border:
“Like I said before, we only have 200 agents for over 800 miles of border in the Grand
Forks Sector. So, sending sometimes up to 30 agents…required us to have less shifts. So, if
a station had two shifts for a 24-hour period, they were reduced to one shift. And there was
a station that had three shifts, a 24/7 operation, that reduced to two shifts. And we were
280
Information provided by CBP to the House Committee on Homeland Security, April 19, 2023.
281
Ibid.
282
Virginia Allen, “Illegal Immigrants Are Now Using the Northern Border, Too,” The Daily Signal, February 20, 2023,
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/20/its-not-just-southern-border-anymore-northern-border-also-faces-explosion-of-illegal-immigration/.
283
Tyler Olson, “Biden admin moving officers from northern US to southern border for Title 42 migrant surge, Cuellar says,” Fox News, April 21, 2022,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/henry-cuellar-border-officers-northern-border-southern-title-42.
284
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol, Sector Profile - Fiscal Year 2020, August 2021,
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-
Aug/U.S.%20Border%20Patrol%20Fiscal%20Year%202020%20Sector%20Profile%20%28508%29.pdf.
52
successful by leveraging our Stone Garden partners, local law enforcement in those areas
to assist us. However, there were less agents in the field doing border security missions in
the Grand Forks Sector.”285
In May 2023, the DHS OIG released a report on the operations being conducted at various CBP
facilities it had inspected along the northern border.286 In speaking with Border Patrol personnel
in the course of this investigation, the OIG found that the deployment of agents to the Southwest
border had a substantial operational impact:
“Swanton sector Border Patrol officials also said the details affected enforcement on the
northern border. For example, boat patrols on the St. Lawrence River were curtailed, as
was participation in joint law enforcement task forces operating on the northern border.
When agents needed to take emergency leave due to illness, some shifts were not staffed or
were understaffed. Officials said as a result of the details, the Swanton sector Border Patrol
was less effective at disrupting cross-border smuggling and assisting with criminal
cases.”287
Even as more Border Patrol agents and resources have been shifted to the Southwest border,
illegal crossings at the northern border have surged. Total northern border encounters have
jumped in the past two years. In FY21, CBP recorded 27,180 total encounters of inadmissible
aliens at or between northern ports of entry. That jumped to 109,535 in FY22, and through July of
FY23, stood at 150,743 encounters.288 As noted by one independent analysis of the figures in
February 2023, “the number of ‘other than Canadian’ nationals deemed inadmissible at the
northern border ports jumped sixfold between FY 2021 and FY 2022 — from around 10,250 to
nearly 67,000,” with around 10 percent coming from China.289
285
Anthony Scott Good, Transcribed Interview with the House Committee on Homeland Security, 35-36, June 29, 2023.
286
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of the Inspector General, CBP Facilities in Vermont and New York Generally Met TEDS Standards, but
Details to the Southwest Border Affected Morale, Recruitment, and Operations, OIG-23-27, May 23, 2023,
https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2023-05/OIG-23-27-May23.pdf.
287
Ibid, 12.
288
289
Andrew Arthur, “Migrant Surge — At the Northern Border,” Center for Immigration Studies, February 23, 2023, https://cis.org/Arthur/Migrant-Surge-
Northern-Border.
53
Meanwhile, the number of Border Patrol apprehensions between northern border ports of entry
this fiscal year (7,633) has already more than tripled FY22’s total (2,238), which in turn more
than doubled FY21 (916).290 North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop, chairman of the House Committee
on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, said in
March 2023:
The northern border “is now a hot spot for illegal alien crossings, including individuals on
the terrorist watchlist, organized criminal activity, and illicit drug smuggling. Illegal alien
encounters are up more than 800 percent from last fiscal year in the Swanton Sector alone.
The Biden administration has encouraged and facilitated this lawlessness and left our
northern Border Patrol agents without the means to accomplish their mission and defend
our porous border.”291
According to Border Patrol agents in the Swanton Sector in June 2023, illegal crossings between
October 2022-May 2023 exceeded total crossings from the past six years combined.292 By
September, that number had increased even more, with Robert Garcia, chief patrol agent for the
290
291
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Bishop Announces Subcommittee Hearing on Northern Border Crisis, 118th
Cong., 1st sess., March 23, 2023, https://homeland.house.gov/media-advisory-bishop-announces-subcommittee-hearing-on-northern-border-crisis/.
292
Jennie Taer, “Agents in One Area of the Northern Border Saw More Migrants Cross Illegally in Eight Months Than Last Six Years,” The Daily Caller, June
21, 2023, https://dailycaller.com/2023/06/21/agents-northern-border-migrants-cross-illegally-eight-months-last-six-years/.
54
sector, tweeting that apprehensions had exceeded 6,100 individuals from 76 different countries
through August of FY23—more than the previous 10 years combined.293
The NBPC’s Judd pointed out in congressional testimony in March 2023 that given Canada’s
more-lax visa policies, individuals from hostile nations like China can more easily enter Canada
and then illegally cross the United States’ northern border.294 Other officials have confirmed
similar findings.295
The northern border’s extreme elements can also be just as perilous as those at the Southwest
border. In January 2022, Canadian police found an Indian family, including two young children,
frozen to death near the U.S.-Canada border. Authorities believe the family perished attempting
to cross.296
293
Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia [@USBPChiefSWB], “Over 6,100 apprehensions from 76 different countries in just 11 months, surpassing the last 10 years
combined. Swanton Sector Agents are resolute and determined to hold the line across our 295 miles of border in northeastern New York, Vermont & New
Hampshire.,” Tweet, Twitter, September 6, 2023, https://twitter.com/USBPChiefSWB/status/1699368978932449444.
294
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, Prepared
Testimony of Brandon Judd on Behalf of the National Border Patrol Council for Biden’s Growing Border Crisis: Death, Drugs, and Disorder on the Northern
Border, 118th Cong., 1st sess., March 28, 2023, 41-42, https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/2023-03-28-OIA-HRG-Testimony-Arthur-
combined.pdf.
295
Jennie Taer, “Illegal Migrant Encounters Surge Roughly 36% At Northern Border,” The Daily Caller, August 18, 2023,
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/18/illegal-migrant-encounters-surge-roughly-36-at-northern-border/.
296
Samantha Fischer, Danny Spewak, and David Griswold, “Canadian police identify family found frozen to death near U.S.-Canada border,” KARE 11, January
27, 2022, https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/canadian-police-identify-patel-family-found-frozen-to-death-near-us-canada-border/89-a68abf47-ab14-
47b7-84a2-8a2647813b7b.
55
Finally, in an embarrassing turn of events demonstrating Mayorkas’ reactionary approach to

dealing with the border crisis, DHS has responded to the growing crisis at the northern border by
deploying agents from the Southwest border to handle the influx there.297
Not-So-Friendly Skies—Reassigning Air Marshals to Administrative

Duty
The Federal Air Marshals Service (FAMS) has also been impacted by the crisis, as marshals have
been pulled away from their roles ensuring security on flights to instead perform duties at the
Southwest border unrelated to law enforcement. The House Committee on Homeland Security
received information in spring 2023 that air marshals are being placed on three-week rotations,
with up to several dozen air marshals and multiple supervisors at the border at any given time.298
In mid-2021, the marshals service requested volunteers for shifts at the Southwest border, but
after few individuals volunteered to be taken away from their law enforcement duties, the
deployments were made mandatory.299
According to the Air Marshals Association, the forced deployment of air marshals has put
immense strain on the workforce as a whole, since many marshals are retiring. The association
recently stated in an internal newsletter, “We have had a staggering number of retirements in the
last few years. We cannot keep sending a large number of our flying FAMS to the border at the
expense of our current mission, while also creating new AVO positions, which currently take more
FAMS out of the air without a clearly defined job.”300
These deployments also represent a national security risk. Per one 2022 press report, these
involuntary deployments to the Southwest border “would strip 99% of commercial flights from
federal protection as people take to the skies during the busiest time of the year for air travel,”
leaving “just 1-in-100 U.S. flights with federal agents on board, one-eighth of its normal
coverage.”301 The National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) released a statement in
November 2022 highlighting similar concerns with the policy:
“During these deployments, air marshals are not using their law enforcement skills to help
secure the border, but are tasked with non-law enforcement jobs, including janitorial
duties. The Federal Air Marshal Service is understaffed and covering the fewest number of
flights since before September 11, 2001. We strongly question the decision by the
Department of Homeland Security to divert much-needed aviation security to the southern
border especially as we enter the busiest travel season of the year, particularly as a Federal
emergency has not been declared at the border. The jobs air marshals are being asked to
297
Julia Ainsley and Didi Martinez, “U.S. transfers Border Patrol agents to northern border as migrant crossings from Canada rise,” NBC News, March 6, 2023,
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/us-transfers-border-patrol-agents-canada-border-migrant-crossings-rcna73623.
298
Information provided to the Committee by Transportation Security Administration Legislative Affairs, May 4, 2023.
299
See Anna Giaritelli, “US air marshals plot 'mutiny' against Biden plan to leave flights unprotected,” The Washington Examiner, November 30, 2022,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/us-air-marshals-plot-mutiny-against-biden; and Matthew Medsger, “Biden admin
deploys Air Marshals to border to help with migrants,” The Boston Herald, November 23, 2022, https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/11/23/biden-admin-
deploys-air-marshals-to-border-to-help-with-migrants/.
300
“April Membership Update: Message from the AMA,” Air Marshal Association, email newsletter, April 22, 2023.
301
Anna Giaritelli, “US air marshals plot 'mutiny' against Biden plan to leave flights unprotected,” The Washington Examiner, November 30, 2022,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/us-air-marshals-plot-mutiny-against-biden.
56
do at the border are well below their skill level and a waste of important
resources. Further, it puts an incredible strain on an already stressed workforce.”302
Diverting HSI Away from Federal Investigations

In addition, based on data provided to the Committee, as many as 120 HSI agents have been
diverted from working on border security efforts, many of them being pulled away from their jobs
doing casework on crimes like child trafficking.303 In August 2023, the Biden administration
announced it was sending 140 more HSI agents to the Southwest border, prompting one source to
say, “You’re using skilled and trained special agents who are trained in criminal investigations
and law enforcement tactics to guard people and to hand out food to individuals and help with
processing.”304
The HSI source further told the press:
“So, when you pull an agent from an active investigation, and you put them somewhere
else for 30 days, that affects that agent’s ability to continue working in that case. And for
HSI a lot of times, we have just one agent in that case. We don’t have multiple agents
assigned to it. So, someone else can’t pick up that slack once somebody has to go down
there. So, your case just gets put on standstill, put on pause, but the criminal activity
doesn’t. That continues.”
“So, you’re not able to continue with the activity going on in that investigation, which
includes terrorism cases, human trafficking cases, violent organized crime cases and child
exploitation cases. We’re already understaffed as an agency, and pulling us down to the
border — it makes us almost a critical level of understaffed.”305
On a similar note, the Border Patrol’s Good told Committee staff in June 2023 that law
enforcement detailees are typically “put where the need is, which is usually processing and
transportation,” and that these professionals could be placed in administrative functions because
that was the area of need.306
Senior DHS officials confirmed these functions in official memos, as well. In an April 2023
memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by the heads of both ICE and CBP, the agencies
stipulated that HSI detailees to the Southwest border would be assigned primarily to
administrative functions, including “hospital watch,” “entry control,” and “welfare checks.”307
302
“NAPO Opposes Forced Deployment of Federal Air Marshals to Southern Border,” National Association of Police Organizations, November 8, 2022,
https://www.napo.org/washington-report/latest-news-updates/napo-opposes-forced-deployment-federal-air-marshals-southern-border/.
303
Internal correspondence provided to House Committee on Homeland Security.
304
Adam Shaw, “Biden administration sending surge of ICE special agents to border amid increase in migrant numbers,” Fox News, August 3, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-surging-ice-special-agents-border-amid-increase-migrant-numbers.
305
Ibid.
306
307
April 2023 CBP-ICE Memorandum of Agreement provided to the House Committee on Homeland Security.
57
58
An April 2023 memorandum of agreement shows that HSI agents are being required to perform administrative
functions at the Southwest border.
59
DHS Requesting Volunteers from Federal Workforce

The Biden administration has also repeatedly solicited volunteers from other federal
departments, even those not connected to border security, asking for assistance. In March 2021,
the administration sent a request for volunteers to help process UACs as part of an HHS detail.308
A year later, DHS leadership sent a department-wide request asking for more volunteers to assist
CBP with the “large numbers” of illegal aliens flooding across the border.309 Even more recently,
in the summer of 2023, DHS sent an internal memo calling for volunteers to assist CBP, looking
for “general support and data entry volunteers to perform non-law enforcement and logistics
tasks to help our CBP colleagues at the Southwest border.”310
308
Eric Katz, “Biden Asks Feds Across Government to Volunteer to Assist at the Border,” Government Executive, March 26, 2021,
https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2021/03/biden-asks-feds-across-government-volunteer-assist-border/172953/.
309
Adam Shaw, “DHS puts out call for employees to volunteer at southern border amid ‘large numbers’ of migrants,” Fox News, March 17, 2022,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-call-employees-volunteer-border-large-numbers-migrants.
310
Adam Shaw, “DHS calls for more agency volunteers to help process migrants at southern border,” Fox News, August 5, 2023,
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-agency-volunteers-help-process-migrants-southern-border.
60
CONCLUSION
Conclusion: Mayorkas Has Ceded Control of the Southwest Border

to Cartels, National Security Threats
In the early days of the crisis, Texas Rep. Chip Roy and Nicole Bishop, criminal district attorney
for Kendall County, Texas, explained that the crisis sparked by Mayorkas’ policies at the
Southwest border has not only overwhelmed federal and state law enforcement, but has
empowered the cartels:
“And with interior enforcement overrun, cartels are proving they are in control of this
crisis. They are profiting handsomely as a result…This is no longer just a border problem;
it’s a problem for the whole country. There are dangerous people doing horrible things to
human beings for profit further and further away from our border and closer and closer to
where most of us live. Cartel smugglers are becoming increasingly armed and increasingly
emboldened as they expand their operations on U.S. soil.”311
This conclusion is inescapable. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates three incontrovertible
facts about cartel operations at the Southwest border and in American communities across the
nation.
First, the cartels have seized unprecedented control of the Southwest border. The testimony of
experienced border security and law enforcement professionals, to say nothing of the sheer
number of illegal aliens and illicit drugs being moved across the border every day, together
demonstrate that the cartels now possess a historic level of control at the Southwest border.
Despite their heroic efforts, the men and women of federal, state, and local law enforcement have
been overwhelmed by the onslaught, and are only able to mitigate some of the consequences of
that control.
Second, the cartels have seized control as a result of the open-borders policies of Mayorkas and
the Biden administration. These groups have seized on the millions of people streaming through
Mexico to the Southwest border to take advantage of Mayorkas’ radical “catch and release”
policies, confident in the knowledge that if they gain entrance into the United States, they will
never be sent home. The cartels have capitalized on this eagerness, and devised insidious new
ways to take advantage of vulnerable populations to ensure an effectively endless stream of
revenue.
Third, cartel control of the Southwest border has led to dire consequences for Americans and
aliens alike. The cartels’ operations at the border and in communities across the country have
meant more crime, more families ripped apart by addiction, and more vulnerable people
exploited and abused. The massive increase in the frequency of these tragedies finds its root in
Mayorkas’ willful opening of America’s borders. Meanwhile, the cartels continue to smuggle an
unknown number of potential national security threats across the border, some of whom are
simply released into the interior.
311
Nicole Bishop and Chip Roy, “Drug Cartels Aren’t Just a Border Problem,” National Review, April 26, 2021, https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/04/drug-
cartels-arent-just-a-border-problem/.
61
CONCLUSION
It is, therefore, this Committee’s conclusion that Mayorkas and Biden’s policies have emboldened
and enriched the cartels, ceded control of America’s sovereign Southwest border to these
organizations, and jeopardized the safety and security of individuals and communities across this
country in the process.
As Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, stated in written testimony to the House
Judiciary Committee in February of this year:
“By allowing our border security mission and immigration laws to be discretionary, these
Criminal Cartels continue to be the true winners, their exploitation of mankind is simply
“Modern Day Slavery”; allowing thousands of pounds of illicit drugs into our country that
continue to erode the core-values of families, schools, and subsequently killing Americans
on an average of 270 every day is completely unacceptable at any level. … Our voice of
reason has been buried during what I call an intellectual avoidance by this Administration,
and yes, members of [the] U.S. Congress.”312
The facts are indeed clear—the cartels have been the greatest winners from Mayorkas and Biden’s
open-borders policies. In his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on July 26, 2023,
Mayorkas brazenly claimed that his policies had “weakened” the cartels.313 That claim does not
withstand even cursory scrutiny.
The next phase of this Committee’s investigation will focus in even greater depth on the various
human costs of Mayorkas’ radical agenda, many of them stemming from the unprecedented
control cartels now exercise over the United States’ sovereign Southwest border.
(Source: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
312
U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Prepared Testimony of Sheriff Mark Dannels for The Biden Border Crisis: Part I,
118th Cong., 1st sess., February 1, 2023, 3, https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/the-
honorable-mark-dannels-testimony.pdf.
313
“Oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security,” House Judiciary GOP, YouTube video, 2:24:22, July 26, 2023,
https://www.youtube.com/live/cAhJdIQy1IA?feature=share&t=8662.,
62

House Homeland GOP Report On Cartels

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DHS SECRETARY

Introduction: Mayorkas Has Empowered the Worst Actors

Section 1: How Cartels Are Taking Advantage of Open-Borders

Cartels Now Control the Southwest Border

How the Cartels Seized Control of the Southwest Border

Section 2: The Cartel-Crime Nexus at the Border and in the

The Inhumane and Destabilizing Tactics of the Cartels

Just consider the experience of one Guatemalan

“Nery Cutzal was 13 when he met his sponsor

“‘Don’t mess with me,’ the sponsor wrote. ‘You

“Nery began working until 3 a.m. most nights

Another teenager told the Times, “I still have to pay

WATCH: Mayorkas Confesses Ignorance About Cartel Human Trafficking

The cartels use homes, apartments, or

proof of how the cartels treat these people like cargo.122

The Cartel Connection to Crime at the Border and in Our Communities

WATCH: Hundreds of People Storm Bridge Leading to El Paso

The Connection Between the Cartels, Gangs, and Open Borders

MS-13—The World’s Most Violent Gang Thrives on Mayorkas’ Watch

The gang continues to try to exploit

Section 3: The Surge of National Security Threats Across the

Individuals on the Terror Watchlist Coming Across in Record Numbers

(Source: CBP TSDS Encounters data)

Perhaps these examples

(Source: CBP Nationwide Encounters data)

(Source: CBP Nationwide Encounters data)

Section 4: Irresponsible Use of Federal Law Enforcement

Redeploying Border Patrol Agents from the Northern Border

(Source: CBP Nationwide Encounters data)

(Source: CBP Nationwide Encounters data)

Finally, in an embarrassing turn of events demonstrating Mayorkas’ reactionary approach to

Not-So-Friendly Skies—Reassigning Air Marshals to Administrative

Diverting HSI Away from Federal Investigations

DHS Requesting Volunteers from Federal Workforce

Conclusion: Mayorkas Has Ceded Control of the Southwest Border

(Source: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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