A massive caravan of Haitian, Cuban, Central American and South American migrants that originated in Tapachula, Chiapas, at the end of August moved through Mexico and arrived in Del Rio, Texas, last week.[1]
The original caravan, which numbered in the hundreds, swelled to the tens of thousands and was heavily represented by Haitians who have fled their island home country due to poverty and the general instability. Their arrival at the U.S. side of the border in Del Rio, Texas, has proved to be the most significant immigration challenge that the U.S. Border Patrol has faced since the Mariel boatlift in 1980, when approximately 25,000 Haitians arrived in Florida, alongside 125,000 Cubans.[2]
The U.S. Border Patrol proved to be unprepared by the migrant caravan phenomenon and did not anticipate the arrival of so many migrants at one place, at one time. To compensate for the lack of resources, the Border Patrol was forced to abandon immigration checkpoints on U.S. highways, leaving Laredo, Texas, and relocating approximately 600 agents upriver to Del Rio. By shifting resources north, the Border Patrol left the Laredo corridor unattended and open to exploitation by criminal groups and human smugglers. During the Border Patrol’s absence from the highways leaving the border at Laredo, there has been no immigration, drug interdiction or other controls on the main transportation artery that serves as the largest land-based multi-modal U.S. Port of Entry serving Mexico. The abandonment of these checkpoints is unprecedented and demonstrates the fact that the U.S. has effectively lost control of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are undoubtedly responsible for the movement of this caravan. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the 13,000 Haitians that walked across the shallow Rio Grande River into Del Rio arrived at the border city pair of Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico in multiple busloads, according to Acuña Civil Protection Chief Carlos Flores. “[Now] they get off buses and go directly to the crossing point. They don’t sit down in the [central] square or look for a shelter … they go directly to the crossing point,” he said.[3]
The fact that buses are being used to transport theses migrants speaks to an organized effort that required the development of a strategic plan composed of many parts. One part of the plan was the orderly movement of thousands of people across all of Mexico. A more important aspect of the planning included the foresight to simultaneously open other critical pathways to the smuggling network, especially those operating through the Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas-Laredo, Texas corridor, while distracted federal authorities responded to the Haitian crisis in Del Rio.
TCOs will capitalize on the fact that the Laredo-area checkpoints are abandoned, even if for a week. This means that smugglers will surge multiple shipments of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, other drugs, and more migrants into the U.S. heartland through the I-35 and Highways 59 and 359 corridors exiting Laredo. TCOs will learn from this success and will likely conduct similar swarm crossings at other uncommonly used border crossing points to take advantage of the continuing inability of U.S. agencies to cope with the overwhelming numbers of migrants violating the territorial integrity of the U.S. Mexico is apparently doing very little to impede the flow of illegal migration and is turning somewhat of a blind eye to the fact that Haitians and others have been so easily transported to the U.S. border by human smugglers and drug trafficking organizations.
The situation is dire and will worsen. As much as Texas state police and other law enforcement officials may aid U.S. Border Patrol to contain the further the movement of migrants and drugs from Del Rio and other crossing points into the interior, their support and participation are limited by legal restraints. State and local police officers lack the federal statutory authority to enforce U.S. immigration laws and as a result, any assistance given is reduced to simple crowd control duties, with little to no deterrence felt by migrants crossing into the U.S.
Despite the assurances of the Biden administration, the border is not closed. The border is open and untold numbers of migrants and drugs are entering the U.S. every day in unquantifiable numbers. The continuing denial of the existence of a border security crisis, regardless of whether defined by immigration or drug concerns, signals to the world that anything goes, and that there are no consequences for the violation of immigration or drug laws — and that the U.S. is allowing itself to operate as a third world nation, one that has no substantive and enforceable immigration laws. Combined, this current crisis portends a serious national security risk to the United States.
[1] https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/national-guard-and-immigration-agents-clash-with-migrants-in-chiapas/
[2] https://immigrationhistory.org/item/mariel-boatlift/
[3] https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/as-thousands-of-haitians-continue-to-arrive-mexico-plans-repatriation-flights/
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