JOE BIDEN'S ORCHESTRATED INVASION OF 'CHEAP' LABOR IN COLLUSION WITH THE MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS

 

 Report

America Doesn’t Need ‘Immigration Reform’ — It Needs To Enforce The Laws We Already Have

By Todd Bensman

Excerpt: The puppet strings for the important control of illegal immigration all lead into the White House and, to a limited extent, Congress. Short of any appreciable congressional action, the White House becomes the default location where a mass migration is started and stopped.

Hiring Illegals Is a Crime
DOJ is guilty of a pattern and practice of failing to seek criminal penalties for employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens

By George Fishman, 

Excerpt: I recommend that Congress seriously consider two statutory changes to fulfill the failed promise of employer sanctions to turn off the jobs magnet for illegal immigration. The first would be to provide temporary legal status (and potentially lawful permanent residence) to illegal aliens who can provide critical information that can lead to the successful prosecution of their employers for employer sanctions violations. The second would be to provide the victims of employers who knowingly employ illegal aliens (such as American workers who are fired or not hired as a result of such unlawful employment) a private right of action to sue the employers for damages.

   

Can California State Universities Legally Hire Illegal Aliens?

Washington, D.C. (November 28, 2022) – A new Center for Immigration Studies report analyzes a recent memo arguing that the federal law which prohibits the hiring of illegal aliens does not apply to state governments. The memo, by a group of self-identified “immigration and constitutional law scholars”, claims that the state of California could and should give California state universities the go-ahead to hire and employ their illegal alien students, based on “the urgent need to expand employment opportunities for undocumented students”. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) prohibits the knowing hiring of illegal aliens. The memo contends that since IRCA does not spell out that it applies specifically to the states, Congress cannot intrude on the states’ historic “police power” to regulate employment within their boundaries. George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center and author of the report, argues that the scholars’ memo is most likely wrong. He said, “If California moves forward with this proposal, I would predict that IRCA will be found to encompass state entities within its employer sanctions regime. But hopefully, good sense will prevail, and the proposal to allow California public universities to hire illegal aliens will never advance beyond advocacy pieces. Authorizing the state to employ aliens not authorized to work under federal law trivializes immigration laws and encourages future illegal immigration.”   Most recently, for instance, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a mobile app where foreign nationals living in Mexico can schedule appointments to get released into the U.S. interior at the southern border. Illegal Immigration Costs Average Taxpayer $957 Annually, New Study Finds CRAIG BANNISTER | MARCH 10, 2023 | 5:37PM EST Text Audio 00:0000:00 Font Size (Screenshot) Illegal immigration costs each American taxpayer $1,156 per year ($957 after factoring in taxes paid by illegal aliens), a new analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) finds. The annual gross cost (state and federal) of illegal immigration is now $183 billion, up more than thirty-five percent since 2017, according to the FAIR report released this week: “In total, the gross cost of illegal immigration now total $183 billion, up more than 35.7 percent since 2017. The cost incurred per illegal alien (including their U.S.-born children) has increased as well, now totaling $8,776 annually.” Even after the tax contributions of illegal aliens is deducted, the average American taxpayer is on the hook for nearly a thousand dollars, the study shows: “When the taxes paid by illegal aliens are factored in, the net cost of illegal immigration to U.S. taxpayers is now $150.7 billion. This means that each American taxpayer shells out a net average of $956 (or $1,156 before the taxes paid by illegal aliens are factored in) due to illegal immigration.” … “Taxes paid by illegal immigrants only covered around 17.2 percent of the costs they created for American citizens.” The report provides the following breakdown of annual federal, state and local government expenditures: Total Federal Expenditures $66,449,136,000 Total State and Local Expenditures $115,608,729,000 Total National Expenditures $182,057,865,000 Total Net Tax Contributions $31,391,635,00 Total Fiscal Cost of Illegal Immigration on U.S. Taxpayers: $150,666,230,000   “Most of the additional costs have been added in the past two years, as the Biden administration’s de facto open borders policies have triggered a historic surge of new illegal migrants pouring across our borders,” the study concludes. But, it’s not just the Biden Administration that’s to blame, since new state and local policies have also encouraged the influx of illegal aliens, FARI President Dan Stein said in a press release introducing the study: “Not only is the Biden administration refusing to rein-in illegal immigration or remove the people who are breaking our laws, they are promulgating policies that actually encourage more of it while offering new protections and benefits to those who settle here illegally. “Likewise, a growing number of states and localities create their own costly magnets for illegal aliens by declaring themselves sanctuaries and offering new benefits and services.” FAIR’s analysis breaks down the cost of illegal immigration by type of government expenditure: medical, education, law enforcement and welfare. See full report. PROFILE OF A SOCIOPATH GAMER LAWYER: JOE BIDEN is known as a serial liar, a "public servant" who has somehow managed to accrue tremendous wealth, a race-baiting opportunist, a Catholic-in-name-only, and a bought-and-paid-for politician in bed with criminal cartels and foreign foes.  In another era, Joe Biden would have been run out of his country much the same way Benedict Arnold was two and a half centuries ago; in an era when integrity, honor, fortitude, fidelity, and grit have been jettisoned for immorality, unscrupulousness, weakness, betrayal, and craven pliability, however, he is elevated to king sleazeball in a city drowning in sleaze. JB SHURK THERE IS NO GREATER THREAT TO AMERCA BEYOND THE BRIBES SUCKING DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THEIR OPEN BORDERS AGENDA TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED AND NARCOMEX, ON, UNDER, OVER AND IN OUR OPEN BORDERS.  WE SIT BY QUIETLY AS BIDEN AND MAYORKAS DESTROY OUR BORDERS AND THE LIE ABOUT IT LIKE TWO GAMER LAWYERS. Will AMLO tell Mexicans to stay home and not vote in 2024? By Silvio Canto, Jr. Last week, President Andres Lopez-Obrador was a bit irate, or "molesto" as they say in Mexico.  He reacted to Senator Lindsey Graham's call to name the cartels as terrorist organizations.  AMLO threatened to tell Mexican Americans to punish the GOP for saying stuff like that. How dare you, gringo? Well, let's hear what AMLO is saying this week because a Democrat is now calling out his "hugs rather than bullets" approach to national security.  This is from Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey via Pulse News Mexico:     Menendez’s criticism comes on the heels of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham presenting an initiative to add Mexican drug cartels on the list of foreign terrorist organizations, and Republican lawmakers Dan Crenshaw and Michael Waltz proposing a bill to give U.S. President Joe Biden the authority to use the U.S. Army against Mexican drug cartels. López Obrador called these proposals “propaganda” and “aggression by the Republicans against Mexico.” However, Menéndez adding his voice to the growing international clamor for Mexico to take security, drug trafficking and democracy seriously makes it complicated for AMLO to pin the blame on mere “Republican aggression.” “Mexico has a responsibility, first and foremost, to its own citizens to establish safety and security within its own territory -- and to those who visit its own country as well,” Menéndez said on Sunday, in an interview with American news-based television channel MSNBC. “And so we need to up dramatically with Mexico. It can’t be all about economics, it has to be about safety and security as well. And I am afraid that we are headed in the wrong direction in Mexico on that, and on democracy questions as well. So this is a present danger that we have to deal with, and we have to engage the Mexicans in a way that says, ‘You’ve got to do a lot more in your security.’ We can help them -- we have intelligence, we have other information we can share. But we need them to enforce security in their own country.” Okay -- so Mexico is headed in the wrong direction?  To be fair, Senator Menendez does not want to name the cartels as terrorist organizations. He did not specify how Mexico can do more for their security.  I thought that we were already sending them weapons and more under the Merida Plan from 2007.  Maybe we need to upgrade the weapons or try something else. Senator Menendez' statement puts AMLO in a tough place.  He is getting criticism from both sides of the Senate chamber.  Is he going to call on Mexicans up here to stay home and not vote for either party?  The only difference between Senator Graham and Senator Menendez is that the former wants to name the cartels as a terrorist organization.  Both are raising doubts about Mexico's ability to defend itself and being critical of AMLO's approach. P.S.  Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos. Image: Erik (HASH) Hersman Last November, Crenshaw introduced the Declaring War on the Cartels Act, featuring increased criminal penalties for criminal cartels’ activities and the targeting of their finances, with provision for seized assets to be directed to Customs and Border Protection, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and the DEA. Border Patrol Chief: 1.5 Million ‘Gotaway’ Migrants During Biden’s Term 607 Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images NEIL MUNRO 15 Mar 20230 6:15 About 1.5 million migrants have sneaked across the border as President Joe Biden opened the doors to a rush of southern migrants, according to testimony from Raul L. Ortiz, Chief of U.S. Border Patrol. The new estimate includes the 1.3 million successful “gotaways” who were spotted by the border patrol’s agents and surveillance systems, plus roughly 200,000 additional untracked migrants, he told a hearing in Texas organized by the House’s Homeland Security Committee. Ortiz’s number, plus agency data, shows that Biden’s Cuban-born, pro-migration border chief — Alejandro Mayorkas — has allowed roughly 4.2 million economic migrants into the United States since January 2021. That inflow delivered more than one migrant for every one of the 3.7 million U.S. births in 2022 — and it helped spike the inflation that has crippled several major banks. Rep. Carlos Giminez (R-FL) asked Ortiz: “Supposing that we have 1.3 million [spotted] gotaways that we know of, what is your estimate of the people — that we don’t know about — that got away?” 🚨#BREAKING I just asked Border Patrol Chief Raúl Ortiz about the ‘gotaways’. At today’s Homeland Security Committee hearing, Chief Ortiz testified that there an additional 20% of illegal alien ‘gotaways’ completely unaccounted for. The border is indeed NOT SECURE. pic.twitter.com/TO02mtbJXV — Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) March 15, 2023 Ortiz answered: I will tell you that the gotaway number is a number that for a long time was associated with [field inspections] …  it was our agents out there actually cutting swaths of country and using, you know, footprints as an indicator as to what we were seeing out there. That was our situational awareness. With the investments that this Congress has made into the Border Patrol CBP as a whole [such as balloon-mounted cameras], we have greater situational awareness now than I’ve ever had. My confidence level in that gotaway numbers continues to increase. Is it 100 percent [confidence]? No, sir. [We have] 385,000 gotaways so far this fiscal year [Since October 1]. We continue to refine that number. I’ve got to do a better job of accounting for the actual encounters … In my estimation based upon the situational awareness that I have, probably between 10 percent and 20 percent [more untracked gotaways]. The number of gotaways has been increasing, according to data provided by the Republican National Committee: Gotaways Under Biden, Republican National Committee Ortiz’s estimate of 1.5 million gotaways is in addition to the 2.7 million migrants allowed through the border since January 2021. That inflow adds up to 4.2 million, or more than one migrant for every one of the 3.7 million U.S. births in 2022. In addition, Biden has imported at least 70,000 migrants via his “parole pathways” since january. The inflow is slated to reach 600,000 a year — in addition to the roughly one million legal immigration cap set by Congress in 1990. However, Biden’s “parole pathways” has already been ruled illegal by a judge. The southern flood is in addition to the annual inflow of roughly one million legal migrants and roughly 750,000 short-term and long-term temporary workers. Those two pipelines delivered at least 2.5 million new migrants into the United States, on top of the 3.5 million southern migrants. The resulting tsunami of roughly six million migrants in 2021 and 2022 created a so-called “demand shock” that inflated the costs of housing, used autos, and groceries for hundreds of millions of Americans. The Biden migration added at least four million workers to the nation’s workforce. That flood was urged and welcomed by business groups because it cuts Americans’ blue-collar wages and white-collar salaries, and it also reduces marketplace pressure to invest in productivity-boosting technology, heartland states, and overseas markets. The Mexico-based cartels “are making billions — billions — bringing people into the United States, many of whom … have to pay the cartels back with forced criminal labor,” said Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), who scheduled the informative hearing. That pocketbook damage to ordinary voters is ignored by progressives and establishment Republicans who tout the migrants as “newcomers” in a “Nation of Immigrants.” Wages for Lower-Paid Workers, Bureau of Labor Statistics Business groups are demanding more immigration, despite accelerating layoffs in the technology sector. Illegal “immigrants here today getting work permits would reduce inflation–on top of being the moral step,” said a tweet by Todd Schulte, the president of the FWD.us advocacy group for West Coast investors. The breadth of investors who founded and funded FWD.us was hidden from casual visitors to the group’s website in early 2021. But copies exist at the other sites. Extraction Migration The federal government has long operated an unpopular economic policy of Extraction Migration. This colonialism-like policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries, reduces beneficial trade, and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and the economy. The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans. The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers. The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because it allows elites to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans. A 54 percent majority of Americans say Biden is allowing a southern border invasion, according to an August 2022 poll commissioned by the left-of-center National Public Radio (NPR). The 54 percent “Invasion” majority included 76 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents, and even 40 percent of Democrats. National Sheriffs Association Calls on Congress to Use All 'Means Necessary' to Destroy Drug Cartels MICHAEL W. CHAPMAN | MARCH 15, 2023 | 10:28AM EDT Text Audio 00:0000:00 Font Size Sheriff Jim Skinner, chairman of the National Sheriffs’ Association Government Affairs Committee. (Screenshot) (CNSNews.com) -- The National Sheriffs Association (NSA), which represents more than 3,000 elected sheriffs nationwide, called on Congress this week to use every tool it can to "degrade, undermine and eliminate the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico." “The nation’s sheriffs strongly support the American people’s continued demand that our federal government use whatever means appropriate to combat these deadly cartels,” said Sheriff Jim Skinner, chairman of the National Sheriffs’ Association Government Affairs Committee, in a statement.     “Without clear, determined and strong action against the Mexican cartels and their partners, we are witnessing the destruction of our families and communities," he added. "We must use the means necessary to undermine the cartels now.”  The press surrounds the site where nine Mormon women and children were murdered past November in an ambush, in Galeana, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on January 12, 2020. (Getty Images) The NSA said the biggest problem is the smuggling of dangerous drugs into the U.S. by a number of Mexican cartels, especially the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.  Along with the narcotics comes corruption, human smuggling, violence and murder. The drugs themselves, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl, are responsible for more than 107,000 overdose deaths between August 2021 and August 2022, according to the CDC. "The Alliance is focused on the death and destruction caused by the cartels’ organized manufacturing and smuggling of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other illicit drugs," said the sheriff's statement.  The organization also noted the kidnapping of four Americans in northern Mexico in late February, and the murder of two of those Americans. Ray Donovan, Chief of Operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), stands in front of 'The Faces of Fentanyl' wall, which displays photos of Americans who died of a fentanyl overdose, at the DEA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13, 2022. (Getty Images) "This crime recalls the Juarez Cartel’s brutal murder of six women and three children who were members of the La Mora community in 2019," said the NSA. "The victims held dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship. The cartels’ turf wars and related murders are infamous, and these murders also victimize the people of Mexico. Simply put, the cartels are the enemy of good people on both sides of the border." "New initiatives in Congress are calling on the U.S. government to use more determined tools to degrade, undermine and eliminate the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico," said the sheriffs.  "NSA applauds these efforts and asks Congress to use its broad legislative authorities to build a comprehensive system of manpower and other tools to prevent illicit drugs from being produced, smuggled, and sold on American streets." Several U.S. senators have called on the State Department to use its authority to declare the Mexican cartels Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). This would give the U.S. government authority to deploy the military against the cartels and their drug labs, and also employ means to track and seize the cartels' finances. People opposed to the sale of illegal drugs on Snapchat participate in a rally outside the company's headquarters to call for tighter restrictions on the popular social media app following fatal overdoses of the powerful opioid fentanyl in Santa Monica, California, June 13, 2022. (Getty Images) In a Feb. 8, 2023 letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 21 state attorneys general called for classifying the cartels as FTOS. They also wrote, "The Mexican drug cartels threaten our national security beyond the sale of these deadly drugs. Over the past decade, Mexican drug cartels have developed well-organized armed forces to protect their reprehensible trade from rivals and from the Mexican government." "The existence of such forces just across our southwestern land border, and the Mexican government’s inability to control them, pose a threat to our national security far greater than a typical drug-trafficking enterprise," said the attorneys general.  The letter also notes that DEA Administrator Anne Milgram has declared, "fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever faced," and that the Washington Post has reported, “an estimated 196 Americans are now dying each day from the drug -- the equivalent of a fully loaded Boeing 757-200 crashing and killing everyone on board.” On March 9, 2023, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador fired back at U.S. lawmakers. “Here, we do not produce fentanyl, and we do not have consumption of fentanyl,” claimed López Obrador. “Why don’t they [United States] take care of their problem of social decay?” Glassine pouches of confirmed fentanyl are displayed at the Drug Enforcement Administration Northeast Regional Laboratory October 8, 2019 in New York - According to US government data, about 32,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2018. That accounts for 46 percent of all fatal overdoses. (Getty Images) "We deeply lament what's happening in the United States -- but why don't they fight the problem ... and more importantly why don't they take care of their youth?" said the Mexican president. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), in an interview with NPR, said, "Clearly the president of Mexico doesn't care that 70, 000 people died of fentanyl overdose in America last year....  He's allowed his border to be controlled by the cartels and he doesn't care." According to its statement, the National Sheriffs Association, which was founded 82 years ago, "is one of the largest non-profit associations of law enforcement professionals in the United States, representing more than 3,000 elected sheriffs across the nation, and with a total membership of approximately 10,000 individuals." Suggested Reading by CNSNews Poll: Most Want to Designate Mexican Cartels as Terrorist Organizations Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles HANNAH BLEAU 15 Mar 20230 4:19 Most likely voters want the U.S. government to designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Wednesday found. The survey found most take the threat of Mexican drug cartels seriously, as 79 percent said it is either very or somewhat serious. Of those, 55 percent said Mexican drug cartels pose a “very” serious threat to the U.S. There is bipartisan consensus as well, as most Democrats (74 percent), Republicans (89 percent), and independents (74 percent) view it as a serious threat to the nation. The survey also asked respondents if the U.S. government should designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, and most, 69 percent, said yes, it should. Once again, there is bipartisan consensus as 65 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans, and 63 percent of independents believe the government should designate the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Per Rasmussen Reports: President Joe Biden’s strongest opponents are most concerned about the cartel threat. Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s job performance as president, 86% say the Mexican drug cartels are a Very Serious threat to the United States, and only seven percent (7%) are against designating the cartels as terrorist organizations. By contrast, among those who Strongly Approve of Biden’s performance, 34% view the Mexican cartels as a Very Serious threat and 26% are against designating the drug cartels as terrorist organizations. The survey was taken March 9 and 12-13, 2023, among 950 likely U.S. voters and has a +/- 3 percent margin of error. Lawmakers have moved to address the issue, as Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) reintroduced the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act this month, which would designate Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations. “What happened in Mexico yesterday was a tragedy and a symptom of a larger problem stemming from the culture supported by our national leadership,” Marshall said in a statement following news of four Americans kidnapped in Mexico, two of whom died. According to the AP,  “Two of four Americans were killed in Mexico when their van was caught in the crossfire of rival cartel groups last week, a top Mexican official said Tuesday.” “The drug cartels have taken full advantage of the culture of lawlessness Joe Biden has created by leaving our southern border wide open, promoting cashless bail, defunding the police, turning his back on violent riots, and denying the fentanyl crisis is created by his policies,” Marshall continued, accusing the White House of being “derelict in its duty to execute the law faithfully and protect the homeland, which is why our country needs the Drug Cartel Terrorist Designation Act to give federal authorities more power to preserve every Americans’ safety and security.” Sen. Scott also pointed to President Biden’s “botched border policies” emboldening criminals. He said: For too long, Biden’s botched border policies have prioritized criminals and cartels over legal immigration and Americans’ safety. Dictators, cartels and bad guys around the world know that Biden is a weak appeaser with open border policies. They’re taking full advantage by trafficking evil drugs like fentanyl across the southern border, poisoning our communities and killing our loved ones. Those who knowingly distribute these highly lethal drugs are declaring war on Americans and deserve to be held accountable and classified as the terrorists they are. Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland believes there are “diplomatic concerns” related to designating the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. “They are already designated in any number of ways and sanctioned,” Garland said during a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing . “I wouldn’t oppose it, but again, I want to point out that there are diplomatic concerns. We need the assistance of Mexico in this.” Sheriff Reveals How Cartels Have Taken Over Rural California | Jeremiah LaRue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpNtnPzc7fU "If you see the pictures, if you see the video, it looks like a third world country. The crime is off the charts. We have people getting murdered at marijuana grows." My guest today is Jeremiah LaRue, Sheriff of Siskiyou County. In a previous episode, we have covered how cartels taking over land in his county and grow massive illegal marijuana. Today, we will dive deeper to find out what’s happening in Northern California. And why the illegal grows have been out of control. Mexican President Says He’ll Campaign Against GOP if it Presses For Military Action Against Cartels PATRICK GOODENOUGH | MARCH 10, 2023 | 4:15AM EST Cartel Gunmen Torch 3 Bars, 4 Stores in Mexican Western State ‘Terror Attack’ 7 Breitbart Texas / Cartel Chronicles CARTEL CHRONICLES 14 Mar 20230 2:33 Cartel gunmen in the Mexican state of Michoacan set fire to three bars and four stores as criminal organizations fight for the right to extort local businesses. In response to the arsons, a local business association expressed outrage at the conditions they have to work under. Some of the bars shut down while government officials tried to minimize the political impact of the fires. Fires began Saturday in Morelia, the capital city of Michoacan. A group of at least five gunmen went to three upscale bars named Mint, Luv, and Vertical in an upscale neighborhood known as Altozano. No customers were injured in the fires, even though they took place in the early morning hours after most restaurants are supposed to be closed. Despite the time, all three were full of customers. In the aftermath of the fire, the owners of Mint announced they would be closing their doors while the local restauranteurs association issued a statement denouncing the fires and asking to be able to work in peace. The fires continued on Sunday night in the town of Uruapan, where a group of gunmen set fire to four stores in the San Francisco market area in the that city. By Monday afternoon, the Michoacan Attorney General’s Office revealed that the fires at the bar could be considered terrorism, however, no one had filed any complaints about the case and authorities were investigating anyway. Law enforcement sources consulted by Breitbart Texas revealed that the fires are tied to a turf war of sorts between Cartel Jalisco New Generation and a criminal group made up of the remnants of the Knights Templars, led by Alberto Espinoza “La Fresa” Barron. Initial information points to La Fresa’s men torching the businesses and threatening to kidnap those who refuse to pay a protection fee to his organization. La Fresa The issue began when gunmen from a CJNG faction led by Erick “El 85” Valencia ordered local businesses to stop paying protection fees claiming that he now controlled the region. Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and other areas to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by Jose Luis Lara, a former leading member who helped start the Self-Defense Movement in Michoacán. DeSantis: Ukraine Is Not a 'Vital National Interest' of U.S., Our Border Is MICHAEL W. CHAPMAN | MARCH 14, 2023 | 1:08PM EDT Font Size Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). (Getty Images) When asked about his view on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a potential 2024 presidential candiate, said "getting further entangled in the territorial dispute" is not among the "vital national interests" of the United States. DeSantis expanded on this view in response to questions from the Tucker Carlson Tonight program on the Fox News Channel.  Carlson had sent identical questions to all the declared and potential 2024 GOP candidates, and he revealed their answers on his March 13 broadcast. The Florida governor said, “While the U.S. has many vital national interests – securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the economic, cultural, and military power of the Chinese Communist Party – becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them. "The Biden administration’s virtual 'blank check' funding of this conflict for 'as long as it takes,' without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges." DeSantis further said that "F-16s and long range missiles" for Ukraine should "be off the table because it could draw the U.S. directly into a war with Russia, which has multiple nuclear weapons. (Screenshot) He also denounced the idea of "regime change" in Russia, which the Biden administration and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) support. Such a policy only raises the "stakes of the conflict," said DeSantis. He added that if Putin were removed, it is highly likely that his successor would be "even more ruthless." DeSantis also explained how support for Ukraine by Biden and much of Congress has emboldened Communist China. "The Biden administration’s policies have driven Russia into a de facto alliance with China," said DeSantis. "Because China has not and will not abide by the embargo, Russia has increased its foreign revenues while China benefits from cheaper fuel." "Coupled with his intentional depletion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and support for the Left’s Green New Deal, Biden has further empowered Russia’s energy-dominated economy and Putin’s war machine at Americans’ expense," said the governor.  (Getty Images) In conclusion, DeSantis said, "We cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland, especially as tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from narcotics smuggled across our open border and our weapons arsenals critical for our own security are rapidly being depleted." Responses of all the Republicans who answered Carlson can be read on Twitter. The Republicans who did not answer the questions are Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Asa Hutchinson, John Bolton and Chris Sununu.  (Screenshot) NOW THE NARCOMEX CARTELS MAKE MORE MONEY CONVEYING JOE'S ILLEGALS OVER THE BORDER THAN THEY DO DRUGS! Last November, Crenshaw introduced the Declaring War on the Cartels Act, featuring increased criminal penalties for criminal cartels’ activities and the targeting of their finances, with provision for seized assets to be directed to Customs and Border Protection, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and the DEA. Destroy the Mexican Drug Cartels It's time. by Josh Hammer  The tragic killing of two U.S. citizens this week in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico, should, in a just world, refocus American attention on the glaring problem of transnational drug cartels’ de facto control of large swaths of our perilously porous southern border. That the two Americans killed may have been mistaken by warring cartel clans for Haitian drug smugglers, as The Dallas Morning News reported, hardly ameliorates the awful situation or lessens our imperative to recalibrate attention away from faraway proxy wars of dubious national interest, and toward the very monsters in our own backyard who run the Western hemisphere’s worst human trafficking rings and flood the U.S. interior with the most lethal drugs known to man. It is not an exaggeration to say that the U.S.-Mexico border, at this point, is one of the most chaotic, over-trafficked and outright dangerous borders in the world. Vicious cartels, such as Sinaloa and Jalisco, engage in gang shootouts in outlaw fashion, with nary a Mexican law enforcement agent in sight — and even those in sight are more likely than not to be bribed, and in the cartels’ pockets. Human trafficking rings, often working hand in hand with the cartels and opportunistic “coyotes” who promise to smuggle vulnerable migrants into the U.S., parade hordes of Central American and Caribbean migrants through the Mexican interior and right up to the border. The humanitarian conditions on these migrant “caravans” are typically abysmal; drugs are rampant, children are exploited and far too many women are raped. Drugs flow across the border like never before; the U.S. drug overdose crisis, which is primarily a fentanyl crisis, is nearly exclusively a phenomenon of the cartels. Drug overdose deaths in America last year reached an unconscionable 106,000-plus, or over 290 daily. That is the functional equivalent of a mid-size commercial airliner falling out of the sky each day; and here, as is the case with fentanyl, those proverbial airliners falling out of the sky would be predominantly packed with those under the age of 35. This tragedy is America’s single greatest humanitarian failing, at the present time. It is also de facto chemical warfare waged against the United States by the criminal drug cartels that operate on our southern border. And the Mexican government, which especially in the northern part of the country nearest the border resembles a failed and deeply corrupt narco-state, is both unwilling and powerless to put a stop to it. The situation at the border, overall, is nothing less than deplorable. Ranchers in southern Arizona can hear gunshots and spot cartel thugs strategically perched in the desert hills a few hundred yards away; hospitals as far apart as Brownsville, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona, are completely overwhelmed and unable to provide medical care for the law-abiding U.S. citizens who live there. And as we were reminded this week, American citizens are being killed. It is a disaster. And such a disaster — especially one in our own backyard — requires a clear, unambiguous response from the putative greatest nation on earth. As this column noted last week, one straightforward and potentially highly effective policy the Biden administration should announce would be to designate the leading drug cartels as State Department-recognized Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Doing this would allow the U.S. government to use various means to financially suffocate the cartels and deprive them of their funding sources. It would also aid law enforcement. Democrats’ typical response is that such a formal designation would complicate diplomatic relations with Mexico, but that barely passes the laugh test: Mexico has just as much — if not more — of an interest in cracking down on the cartels as the U.S., but it cannot publicly say so, let alone act upon that interest, due to the cartels’ successful bribery and corruption of the all-too-venal Mexican government. Crucially, a formal Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for the leading cartels, such as Sinaloa and Jalisco, would also permit the U.S. to go even further. Consider the fact that, as recently as 2021, 625 U.S. citizens were abducted in Mexico. Far too many did not come home, as their families failed to pay ransom and the abductees were thus killed. If an Islamic jihadist outfit were responsible for such atrocities on this scale, on an annual basis, Congress would pass a bipartisan authorization to use military force and the U.S. would not hesitate to declare all-out war. After 9/11, the U.S. waged war upon al-Qaeda; but for some reason, with hundreds of citizen kidnappings, far too many murders and an unfathomable number of Americans now dropping dead from cartel-supplied fentanyl poison, bipartisan elites cite concerns about diplomatic niceties and say our hands are tied. Nonsense. Our hands are not tied. There is even some precedent. From 1910 to 1919, the Mexican Border War unfolded in a series of military engagements along the border. After Pancho Villa’s infamous attack on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, decorated U.S. Army General John J. Pershing launched the “Punitive Expedition” (or the “Pancho Villa Expedition”) into northern Mexico. It was only partially successful, but the U.S. Army did manage to kill Villa’s two top lieutenants. It is now time for another “Punitive Expedition” into northern Mexico. With cartel violence, drug peddling and the sheer invasion of illegal aliens at the border the worst they have ever been, the U.S. has little choice but to affirmatively act. We should first seek to obtain the Mexican government’s permission to engage in a limited operation to hunt down and kill top cartel leaders, but this is one such mission where America must go alone if need be. The direct effect on virtually all facets of American life is far too galling for this to go on much longer. It is time to rain hell on the cartels, stopping their illegal alien smuggling, fentanyl-peddling chemical warfare, thuggery, brutality and corruption once and for all. The American ruling class would currently have us believe that “democracy,” and the fate of the Western world more generally, is somehow now on the line in the hinterlands of eastern Ukraine. Suffice it to say that is not the case. But what is the case is that an increasingly failed, corrupt narco-state on our southern border refuses to do anything about some of the world’s most vicious transnational criminal rings, which also happen to control large swaths of the border. It is past time to focus in earnest on extirpating America’s massive problem south of the border. Reader Interactions