Cartel Human Smuggling Adapts with New Tactics on Southern Border

Evolving Border Challenges

• 🎯 Border patrol agents report that while migrant crossings have fallen to record lows, cartel human smuggling and drug smuggling operations continue to ramp up.
• 📈 In the Rio Grande Valley sector, daily migrant crossings have dropped from 2,000 to around 100, yet smuggling activities show no signs of slowing.

Cartel Tactics and Control

• 🏷️ Discarded wristbands are a new tactic used by cartels to track and manage migrants, with different colors and numbers linking to specific smuggling groups.
• 💰 Migrants are paying cartels up to $11,000 for smuggling services, indicating the high profitability of these operations.
• ⚠️ Migrants are also paying more to cartels to be smuggled, especially if they face deportation, as they may attempt to cross again.

Processing and Deportation

• 🏥 Temporary migrant processing centers, like the one in Eagle Pass, are closing due to fewer crossings.
• ⏱️ With fewer migrants, processing centers are nearly empty, leading to migrants being removed and deported quicker, sometimes within hours of illegal entry.
• 🚌 Border patrol is utilizing buses to transport migrants to entry points where they are handed over to Mexican authorities for immediate apprehension and removal.

Legal and Enforcement Actions

• ⚖️ The White House is considering using the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, potentially allowing detention and deportation without court hearings.
• 🚔 This move is already facing legal challenges, even as ICE has made over 32,000 arrests in the first couple of months of 2025, with deportations not keeping pace.
• 🔒 Former officials affirm a commitment to securing the southern border and enforcing immigration laws to save lives.