President Joe Biden’s incompetence in handling the border crisis is empowering Mexican drug cartels, which routinely participate in brutal violence and other illicit activities. But with the current crisis at the southern border, they appear to be stepping up their efforts, and if it gets worse, it could result in fatalities.

The Texan published a report on Monday detailing how the White House’s approach to immigration could be placing Americans in danger, particularly in Texas. As the author points out:

“The illegal immigration disaster in Texas’ border patrol sectors is as bad as it has been all year, with more than 118,000 enforcement encounters with illegal aliens in May, according to statistics released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that are current as of June 3.”

But even more noteworthy is the fact that CBP reported almost 1.1 million enforcement actions with illegal immigrants this year so far. “That includes a reported 30,066 family unit apprehensions, 10,756 unaccompanied children taken into custody, and 77,214 single adults arrested in Texas sectors,” the author wrote.

CBP issued a press release, noting:

“[T]he large number of expulsions during the pandemic has contributed to a larger-than-usual number of noncitizens making multiple border crossing attempts, and means total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border.”

The CBP report also noted that 38% of encounters in May were related to individuals who had a previous encounter in the last 12 months. Between 2014 and 2019, the average rate of encounters was 15%.

Another alarming factor is the reality that there was a 58% increased in the number of family units being apprehended at the Del Rio sector. The agency experienced 6,975 family unit arrests in May compared to 4,614 in April.

In an interview with The Texan, retired Supervisory Special Agent Victor Avila painted a dire picture of the situation. Avila worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and has intimate knowledge of how the cartels operate south of the border.

Avila came face-to-face with members of the cartel in 2011 when he and his partner, Special Agent Jaime Zapata, were instructed to travel along Highway 57 as they traveled from Mexico City to an area near their Monterrey office, even though the route was rife with cartel activity.

The Texan reported:

As Avila and Zapata were returning to Mexico City, the Los Zetas drug cartel ambushed them in their armored vehicle, which had mechanical problems that included a faulty panic button. The cartel murdered Zapata in a hail of gunfire and Avila, though he survived, suffered serious injuries from the attack.

The former investigator recently interviewed CBP agents working in the Rio Grande Valley and Del Rio area. These agents told him that the drastic increase in migrants at the border has made it difficult to respond to illegals trying to cross into the country illegally. To put it simply, they are being stretched thin.

“The inability of CBP to fully secure the border has created a set of circumstances that are conducive to cartel activity,” The Texan observed. As Avila said:

“The open border policy under this administration has brought people from all over the world, we’re not just talking about Mexico and Central Americans. In Del Rio, where I was just last week, I interviewed people from Uganda, the Congo, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Chile — these are individuals who are coming from these countries.”

Another interesting part of this story is that many of the individuals entering the country illegally have obtained advanced degrees and money to create a new life in America. Avila stated that these people will “flat out tell you” that the reason they made the journey to the southern border is because of the change in presidents.

“There are absolutely no checks whatsoever of these individuals, there’s no vetting of these individuals coming in, and they have money. They have money to buy airline tickets, they have money to buy clothing, they have money to pay the cartels, they have money to set themselves up anywhere in our country and they’re doing it.”

The former ICE agent indicated that residents living in the Del Rio sector are afraid for their safety due to the uptick in migrants coming to the border and that many of those choosing to cross illegally are doing so because they have criminal records:

“[T]hey can’t drop off their child at the bus stop like they used to, because you have four illegal aliens from Central America, four men, standing there and they can’t drop off their 11-year-old daughter, because they don’t feel safe.

“And that is the concerning part, because if they want to come in undetected it’s because they do not want to be fingerprinted, they do not want to be identified, and that’s because they have criminal histories.

“A lot of individuals that have been in our country, that have been convicted of crimes, especially sex offenders, have been convicted of a crime, serviced, and deported, and guess what? They’re coming right back.”

Avila noted that in certain areas, it is easy for migrants to cross the border illegally because CBP is unable to patrol these locations due to cartel activity.

“In El Paso, it’s a whole different dynamic. It’s all cartel land over there. Border patrol can’t even go to certain parts of the mountain or they’ll get shot at from the Mexican side.”

Biden’s border policies have helped the cartels make more money by exploiting people who wish to be smuggled into the United States. These individuals are required to pay the cartel a hefty fee, up to $20,000 a person, to ensure a safe journey to and across the border. Many of them carry drugs and other contraband into the U.S. at the behest of these criminal entities.

After signaling to people living in Mexico and other Central American countries that they would be welcomed into the country if they reach the southern border, Biden created a new cash cow for the cartels, who also engage in human trafficking. The fact that Border Patrol can’t even patrol certain areas due to cartel activity is a disgrace – a foreign entity is essentially telling our agents where they can and cannot go.

Biden’s failure to address the issue is emblematic of his administration’s ineptitude. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is supposedly charged with dealing with the problem, still has not bothered to travel to border cities to speak with the people on the ground. Unfortunately, this problem will continue to get worse and could result in Americans and migrants alike losing their lives if the cartel is allowed to hold sway. Too bad the White House is not up to the task.