Garza Mendez is considered a close associate of Jesus Gilberto “El Cholo” Acuña Jurado, the founding leader of Cartel X. Authorities in Chihuahua arrested El Cholo in July 2020 for extortion in Tamaulipas. The new organization is responsible for executions, abductions, and arson as a way of pressuring businesses to change the recipients of protection fees.
Originally a member of the CDN-Los Zetas, Garza Mendez was tied to criminal activity since his early teen years and used the nickname “El Soberano.” However, a betrayal within CDN-Los Zetas led to the kidnapping of Garza Mendez. He was tortured and left for dead. After he recuperated, he and El Cholo began to recruit Los Zetas deserters to form Cartel X. The fledgling organization initially focused on meth sales but recently branched into protection rackets.
Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Issues Storm Warning on Migrants at the Border
This should not happen in the United States, and President Biden needs to act
In a February 5 post, I reported that adult migrants travelling illegally with children (family units or FMUs) were being released after a brief processing by Border Patrol along the Southwest border in Texas. On Wednesday, February 17, Del Rio, Texas, Mayor Bruno Lozano posted a video on YouTube begging (not an understatement) President Biden to stop releasing migrants apprehended in and near his city due to a lack of resources exacerbated by the unprecedented winter weather that Texas is experiencing.
This should not be necessary — let alone happen — in the United States.
On Wednesday night, 1.6 million homes and businesses in the Lone Star State had no power as a result of the storm, and many had no access to water, either. A quarter of the state's population has been advised to boil its water before consumption. Del Rio has been especially hard hit, according to the mayor.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the number of FMUs apprehended by Border Patrol and being released into communities in this country is "rising fast". January is traditionally not a month that sees a lot of illegal migration — over the past eight years, it is when CBP encounters at the Southwest border have cratered.
Nonetheless, according to the Journal, this year is different: "Local officials and aid groups say they haven't seen such large releases of migrants since 2019, when U.S. border officials were overwhelmed by migrant families seeking asylum."
FY 2019 was not the "good old days", at least as it related to CBP's ability to process large numbers of migrants — and in particular FMUs — along the border, as a bipartisan panel report explained. CBP, and Border Patrol in particular, lack the resources in the best of times to handle large surges of aliens generally and FMUs in particular. Those resources were uniquely strained in FY 2019.
The problem is now worse, as CDC Covid-19 protocols have limited CBP's processing and detention space. Many migrants (including FMUs) were expelled back to Mexico during the pandemic under the CDC's Title 42 expulsion order under the Trump administration, but Mexico has begun to refuse their return, as I noted on February 5.
CBP doesn't test the migrants it releases, but will send them for local treatment if they are ill, according to the Journal.
In San Diego, Calif., migrants released by CBP have been quarantined in local hotels for 10 days by the state. In the Rio Grande Valley southeast of Del Rio, aid groups were given testing kits for aliens who were released by CBP before they were sent to buses and shelters. But Del Rio does not have Covid-19 testing for migrants, or the capacity to treat those who are sick, at least not now.
Why is there an increase in illegal migrants? A February 10 Journal article posited many reasons (poverty, gang violence, this summer's hurricanes that affected Central America), but noted: "Authorities also said smugglers in the region have been telling migrants that President Biden's administration, which has reversed many of the Trump administration's strict immigration policies, would be more likely to allow them to stay in the U.S."
That is the "Biden Effect" that my colleague Todd Bensman suggested in November could occur. The Journal reported last week that even the UN is "worried about the wide circulation of rumors that the U.S. border is open, that all asylum applications are being accepted, and that people can get in easily, which are false."
Is it false, though, really? If the administration is not taking strong action to detain migrants who have entered illegally, the smugglers — as much as I hate to say it — may have a point.
I went to Del Rio in the summer of 2017, and it is not a big town. The people there were great, but there is only so much that they can do when the federal government fails to protect the border.
In a post last month captioned "The Calm Before the Immigration Storm: And the cone of probability is growing narrower", I suggested that Biden's campaign rhetoric was going to encourage illegal entrants, regardless of then-President-elect Biden's assertions that changing his predecessor's border policies would take time, and that migrants should not risk the journey to the United States (yet).
I had no idea that the metaphorical storm I referenced would run head-on into a real one. Small-town mayors should not have to beg the president of the United States to do his job.
Hope and Chaos on the Border
Since Biden has become president, there’s been a surge of migrants trying to enter America.
It’s Joe Biden’s border crisis now.
Tens of thousands of migrants are surging across Mexico toward the U.S. frontier, most of them desperate Mexicans and Central Americans drawn by internet rumors and traffickers’ false promises that the new president’s immigration reforms will welcome them to settle in the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported Thursday that they had expelled, detained, or arrested 78,323 migrants last month, up six percent from December and more than double the number in January 2020. Nearly 6,000 of the migrants intercepted by border officers trying to slip the border last month were unaccompanied children.
“It looks like we’re at the beginning of a bona fide migrant crisis like 2019,” said Todd Bensman, an Austin-based senior national security fellow with the conservative Center for Immigration Studies. “Family units, parents with children, are massing along the northern border of Mexico, then crossing in large groups, anywhere from 20 to 150 at a time, twenty-four hours, seven days a week.”
Bensman calls the migrant surge “the Biden effect” because nearly all the migrants he has interviewed along the routes from Central America and Mexico were ecstatic about the president’s campaign promises to reform the U.S. immigration system. They assumed that his victory in November meant they would soon be welcomed to resettle in the U.S., they told him.
“The escalation is so much faster than 2019,” a federal agent on the border says, speaking on terms of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive issue. “It started getting busy in the summer. Since the inauguration, the numbers are spinning.”
“People think that now the doors are open, that President Biden is going to immediately regularize all migrants,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday, warning Central Americans not to risk the perilous trip to the border only to be turned back to gang-plagued encampments. “It is not true,” he said, “that everyone can go now to the United States.” He blamed the surge on “human traffickers, who paint a rosy picture.”
At two consecutive White House briefings this week, Biden press secretary Jen Psaki pleaded for patience.
“We have not had the time, as an administration,” she said, “to put in place a humane, comprehensive process for processing individuals who are coming to the border, now is not the time to come, and the vast majority of people will be turned away. Asylum processes at the border will not occur immediately; it will take time to implement.”
Meanwhile, though, refugees fleeing violence and poverty in Mexico and Central America may take another, more welcoming message from Biden’s formal proclamation on Thursday that put an end to ex-President Donald Trump’s 2019 declaration of a national emergency on the southwestern border. “It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall,” Biden wrote in a formal letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
The Rio Grande Valley in southeast Texas, traditionally the nation’s busiest smuggling corridor, has been hardest hit by the migrant surge. U.S. Border Patrol agents there have been apprehending more than 17,000 illegals a month since October; more than double the pace of late 2019 and early 2020. Last week, Border Patrol agents apprehended 253 illegals, mainly families with children, in the Rio Grande Valley within a single hour.
To process the throng of refugees in winter weather and pandemic conditions, on Tuesday, the administration opened a 185,000-square-foot tent facility on 40 acres near McAllen, the biggest city in the Rio Grande Valley.
Catch and Release
After processing, most of those people are being sent back to Mexico to wait out their asylum hearings. But some families with young children are being released into the United States, with orders to return for asylum proceedings, a process that could take months or years.
According to federal officials, Border Patrol agents have been told to process and release families with children under 12, in line with Biden’s pledge to end the Trump administration policy of separating families and detaining illegal migrants for months or longer.
“Right now, we’re just dropping them off at the bus station,” says one agent. “No testing, no nothing. We detain them and get their biometrics. If they have a kid under 12, they get an OR [own recognizance] packet, a notice to appear [at an asylum hearing] and a pro bono lawyers list, and then we release them. They are now legally in the U.S. They can go wherever.”
Exactly how many refugees have been released into the U.S. is not clear. Psaki said Wednesday that “there have been incredibly narrow and limited circumstances where individuals…have come into the country awaiting for their hearing, but the vast majority have been… turned away.”
She did not disclose exactly how many people have enjoyed “narrow and limited” exceptions to the general policy of requiring asylum-seekers to wait for their turn abroad. CBP officials have not responded to SpyTalk’s request for these numbers.
Nor is there solid data for “gotaways”—Border Patrol slang for illegals who evaded U.S. authorities. Internal enforcement records reviewed by SpyTalk suggest that thousands of “gotaways” disappear weekly into the U.S. heartland. Some officials say the gotaway numbers are understated because agents on the border are stretched too thin to execute the necessary paperwork.
A few national security officials fear that some of the gotaways may have been spies and terrorists, an idea that gained traction after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. So far, it hasn’t materialized as a significant national security threat, but border enforcement officials say it’s entirely possible that secret agents and terrorists trained in evasion tradecraft are successfully infiltrating the burgeoning migrant waves.
Says one federal agent: “If you’re so busy you’re not able to make cuts”—hunting slang for tracking footprints—“you have no idea what’s getting away.”
FBI and Homeland Security officials pay extra attention to people they call SIAs, or “special interest aliens,” individuals who, “based on an analysis of travel patterns, potentially [pose] a national security risk to the United States or its interests.”
From Tehran to Yuma
CBP does not publish numbers for migrants in the SIA category. According to data obtained by SpyTalk, in the last half of January, federal agents in Texas apprehended two North Koreans, nine Chinese, 70 Venezuelans and more than 300 Cubans. Hundreds more Cubans are reported to be waiting to file asylum claims from encampments in Ciudad Juarez, just south of El Paso. U.S. officials have not said publicly whether any of the Cubans or other espionage or terrorism.
“You just can’t do background checks on these people,” says Arturo Fontes, a retired FBI agent formerly based in Laredo, who investigated numerous migrants suspected of links to Middle Eastern terror groups. “When you interview them, it’s difficult to tell who they really are.”
At this moment, the FBI, intelligence agencies and border control authorities are watching closely for any Iranian operatives. The radical nation’s leaders have vowed revenge against the United States for the January 2020 U.S. drone attack that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, leader of the powerful Quds Force, the external arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. On Feb. 1, Border Patrol officers based in Yuma made national headlines when they apprehended 11 Iranians—five women and six men—on a bridge near San Luis, Arizona, a Yuma suburb that straddles the border.
“The 11 Iranians that were caught were probably economic migrants, but they’ll have to be ruled out as anything else,” says Bensman, a former journalist and counterterrorism intelligence specialist for the Texas state police, and author of a forthcoming book, America’s Covert Border War: The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration. “They’ll be thoroughly vetted and interviewed at the border.” If any are defectors, presumably they’ll be referred to the intelligence community.
The bust is intriguing because it may be part of a pattern. The U.S. Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector leads the nation in apprehensions of Iranian illegals, with a total of 14 in the current fiscal year, which began last October, and eight in fiscal year 2020. These instances suggest that southern Arizona is a preferred way station for Iranians paying to be smuggled into the U.S.
“There’s a migrant trail from Iran to the southern border that is well established,” Bensman says. Following the route back, Bensman says he found Iranians in Panama and Costa Rica, planning to travel to the U.S. They were using false or real travel documents acquired from corrupt officials in various small nations to make their way to Mexico, he says, where they planned to pay a Mexican smuggling ring to take them the last mile to the U.S.
Fontes, who also investigated the Iranian migrant trail, says he has been told by a reliable source that some Iranians fly into Cancun, a resort with many international flights, fly from there to Mexicali, just south of California, and pay cartel smugglers $30,000 to $50,000 to drive them to the border, then guide them across it.
Mexico’s human trafficking rings are highly organized, disciplined branches of larger cartels that also traffic in drugs and arms and exert rigid control over their plazas, turf.
“The cartels are in control of the border,” says Norman Townsend, another retired FBI agent, also based in Texas and experienced in investigating efforts by Middle Eastern extremist groups to send operatives into the U.S. “The potential for infiltration by a terrorist is certainly there.”
Coached Class
Malign actors can arrange to be guided via the safest routes, according to agents who work the borders. Meanwhile, the cartel will send poor Central Americans by more exposed, dangerous routes. If they need to be rescued, all the better. Cartel guides exploit humanitarian emergencies to move valuable contraband and people who pay for first-class treatment.
“Family units are being used as diversions to get everyone else across,” says a federal agent on the border. “They’ll send 100 people, and to the left of that, they’ll send up dope.”
“The fentanyl issue will slam the country in 2021,” says Jaeson Jones, head of Omni Intelligence and a former captain in the Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “As apprehensions have skyrocketed this year, drug seizures will dip at the border. There’s not enough law enforcement to stop drugs, due to large migration.”
One indirect consequence of the migrant surge may be spiraling overdose deaths. According to DEA intelligence reports, Mexican cartels are jacking up their sales of counterfeit pharmaceutical painkillers laced with fentanyl, an extraordinarily addictive and lethal synthetic opioid manufactured in China and smuggled to Mexican commercial ports in 55-gallon drums of bulk chemicals.
A minuscule dose of fentanyl can kill instantly. As of June 2020, estimated drug overdose deaths spiked to 83,335 over the previous 12 months, the highest level ever reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The U.S. will pay a significant price as overdose deaths rise and local crimes skyrocket throughout the country,” says Jones. “Watch for crime problems to be a major issue during the Biden administration.”
As far as Mexico’s cartels are concerned, it’s all good. Humans, drugs or guns, it’s all just profit for the crime barons, and business is booming.
“The cartels are making a killing,” says Bensman.
Allegedly Fake COVID-19 Vaccines Seized in Mexican Border State Clinic Came from Texas, Says Owner
The owner of a medical clinic in Mexico that was raided this week for allegations of selling fake COVID-19 vaccines claims they were genuine and purchased in McAllen, Texas.
The raid took place this week in a suburban clinic of the Monterrey Metropolitan area, where authorities arrested six individuals who are currently facing federal charges. Authorities received information about the sale of fake vaccines at the clinic for approximately $600. According to the Nuevo Leon Health Secretary Manuel de la O, the raid was tied to an investigation into a clandestine distribution network where authorities seized vials with the lot number 783201 with an expiration date of August 2024, however, the vials were not being kept at proper storage temperatures.
The owner of Spine Clinic by Imperium, Carlos Villarreal Aranda, said the day after in public interviews the vaccines were in fact real from McAllen. Villarreal claimed he took advantage of the recent winter storm to put the vaccines in an ice chest and move them from Texas to Nuevo Leon.
“Why? To vaccinate my family, the doctors and some friends that we had to help because they have chronic illnesses, but we are not a distribution network and we are not salesmen,” Villarreal said, claiming the allegations against his clinic are false.
Villarreal incorrectly claimed the vaccine is being freely sold in Texas during his defense. “We did not know it was a crime to use them here,” he said. The clinic owner has not publicly revealed where he purchased the doses.
Gerald “Tony” Aranda is a contributing writer for Breitbart Texas.
Exclusive: Biden Policies Force Release of 200 Migrants into West Texas Border Community
Law Enforcement sources report the release of more than 200 mostly Central American family units into a West Texas border community. The Biden administration’s cancellation of swift removal policies for Central American migrants forced Border Patrol officials to begin the releases of certain migrants immediately.
The recent dismantling of international agreements by the Biden administration created a backlog of migrants being detained in Border Patrol facilities. Due to these changes, the Border Patrol will begin to release Central American family groups that cannot be removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to their home countries, according to information obtained from sources with knowledge of the plans. The order to release the migrants comes with little notice to local humanitarian organizations.
Lack of bed space in ICE detention facilities designed to accommodate family units put Border Patrol officials in a quandary. The only option available to the Border Patrol is the immediate release of these migrants into humanitarian shelters. The non-governmental shelters will coordinate their travel to other destinations around the country.
In West Texas, migrants will be transported from the region surrounding Eagle Pass, Texas. Other cities within the area lack adequately staffed humanitarian shelters to handle the number of releases. In Eagle Pass, humanitarian shelters will work to accommodate the new arrivals.
A U.S. Border Patrol contract transportation van drops off migrant families on February 14 at a shelter in Eagle Pass Texas. (Photo: Breitbart Texas/Randy Clark)
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, the shelters are currently providing humanitarian care for recently released Haitian Migrants. They are still receiving the population of released Haitians on Sunday, further complicating the situation.
The releases began on Saturday and will continue over the coming days. Border Patrol agents must complete the work to reprocess hundreds of Central American migrants and their release will be continuous until the task is complete.
Asylum case file amendments take several hours per migrant. This removes many Border Patrol agents from patrol duties. The timing of the move could not have been worse.
Texas Governor Greg Abbot declared a state of emergency for all Texas counties due to impending freezing weather. Many of the migrants travel lightly and lack cold weather apparel. With little advance notice, local humanitarian shelters will likely attempt to provide shelter, food, and clothing through donations.
In a recent tweet, a State Department spokesperson celebrated the end to Asylum Cooperation Agreements (ACA) with Central American countries that sped the removal process, thus preventing the overcrowding of Border Patrol Stations. These agreements also eased the strain on ICE managed detention facilities.
The border is in a state far from closed as thousands of migrants are being arrested by the Border Patrol weekly. Migrant releases, a rarity during the previous year, are now a frequent occurrence.
The new administration coined the term “irregular migration” apparently to soften earlier used terms such as “illegal immigration.” This perhaps is an attempt to deflect from the reality of what is happening along the southern border.
Witnesses reported seeing multiple Border Patrol contracted transportation vans dropping off released migrants at a local shelter on Sunday.
Other law enforcement sources outside the West Texas region are reporting migrant releases as a daily occurrence as well. One source reports the increase in illegal entries of previously removed asylum applicants under the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. Most, however, are swiftly returned to Mexico under the CDC emergency COVID-19 order. They are being advised to wait until the DHS program unfolds next week allowing their return and release into the United States.
Breitbart Texas reached out to ICE officials for additional information. A response was not available as of press time.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas Sector.
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