Neglected Victims, Empowered Cartels

Cartels thrive on the criminalization of immigration that allows them to prey on migrants at the border.

Written by Agustina Vergara Cid and Onkar Ghate

Immigration opponents often focus on possible future dangers, such as worrying after October 7 that Hamas militants would walk across our borders and kill innocent people. But for many actual innocent victims of violent, organized gangs, they seem to have much less concern.

Just how true this is sank in when one of us (Agustina) visited the border in McAllen, Texas, to hear from border agents and migrants. Among these was Manuel (not his real name), a man from South America who had just crossed the border with his son. Manuel says he came to the U.S. because the economic, educational and security prospects at home were dismal. He wanted a better life. He decided it was worth trying to cross through the southern border. The alternative was a lifetime of misery at home.

The journey of migrants like Manuel is perilous, partly due to the topography and natural hazards they have to endure: deserts, mountains, wild animals, extreme weather. But the biggest threat is man-made. South of the border, cartels harass, extort money from, kidnap and torture migrants trying to reach the U.S. The luckier migrants will be abused but eventually smuggled into the U.S. Less lucky ones will end up being trafficked as sex slaves. Others will be subject to forced labor or even organ trafficking. 

The story Manuel tells is not uncommon. Near the border, the bus he and his son were riding was hijacked by cartel members. They kidnapped passengers and demanded ransom in exchange for allowing them to cross the border and not raping them. Manuel was able to pay and he and his son were finally released, but not before witnessing other migrants — men, women and children — being raped. They then made it across the border.

What did Manuel and his son do to deserve this fate? Some will answer that Manuel should have come to America “the right way.” In choosing to cross the border, he must have known the risks.

But this answer ignores the fact that it is virtually impossible for most people to immigrate to America legally. We may tell people like Manuel to get in line, but we should know that it’s not a line that leads anywhere.

Even if we don’t know this, Manuel did. He knew his prospects of legally working in America and becoming a permanent resident were non-existent. He also knew that asylum seekers can be paroled and remain for some time until their claims are processed. Unable to obtain a visa and fly into an airport, he showed up, as required by law, at the border to claim asylum.

Yes, Manuel knew the risks of crossing the border, he knew the dangers posed by the cartels, but he chose to come, nevertheless. Desperate and in search of a better life, he undertook the terrifying journey.

Isn’t there something admirable in the choices and actions of individuals like Manuel? Put yourself in his shoes. Imagine you had been born in a different country. Wouldn’t you do whatever you could to make it to America? Wouldn’t you look for someone here who wanted to hire you and jump at the first job offer you received? This is what our current immigration system declares illegal.

Our immigration laws simply do not allow most people to get the visa they need if they want to work. Present law neither recognizes the freedom of migrants to move and to work nor, even worse, the rights of Americans to associate and trade with whom we decide is best.

One perverse but predictable result is to push innocent and desperate people into the hands of the cartels. Migrants like Manuel cannot enter legally through airports and other ports of entry as normal travelers to the U.S. do, so they mass at the border and try to cross. The cartels, experts in violence, exploitation and evasion of the law, lie in wait.

Manuel’s case is not an outlier. Cartels now control most of the migrants’ journey along our southern border, operating in Mexico and increasingly on U.S. soil. Border Patrol agents testified in 2023 to the cartels’ power: in the words of one official, “nobody crosses without paying the cartels.” Human smuggling and human trafficking bring the cartels upwards of $13 billion a year.

When the cartels prey on migrants like Manuel, the migrants have little legal recourse. Because we’ve declared illegal their very act of trying to come and work in the U.S., they fear turning to the authorities for protection.

Opponents of illegal immigration often claim that our breachable southern border is empowering the cartels. This is true, but not in the sense they usually mean. Too often, the portrait they paint is of terrorists, murderers, rapists and other criminals paying the cartels to smuggle them across the border into the U.S. Such cases exist, but they do not capture the essence of the crisis. No one can extort billions of dollars from murderers and rapists. The reality is that too many peaceful, willing-to-work migrants who seek to come here legally — can’t. This is what creates the prey for the predators.

If you regard the Statue of Liberty, as we both do, as one of the great symbols of America’s ideals, you should find this situation shameful.

The only solution is to demand substantial reforms to our immigration system. We must make it far easier for residents to hire migrants who want to work. And we must crack down on the cartels and other criminal gangs operating across our borders, preying on people seeking a better life.