From Romania to the Rio Grande...
Mexican cartels cash in on UK’s closure to Europe’s poorest
BREXIT is fuelling the migrant crisis in America as Europeans unable to enter the UK turn to the US instead.
The Mirror found scores of Romanians among the tens of thousands of people crossing the fast-flowing Rio Grande from Mexico into the States.
Their perilous trek involves walking through the notorious city of Miguel Aleman, across the river from Roma, Texas, where we heard constant heavy gunfire between the rival Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas crime gangs.
Every night for a week the Mirror watched thousands delivered by the inflatable boatload on to US soil. Among them were Europeans who no longer felt able to make it to the UK, their intended destination, after Britain left the EU.
They have seized on US President Joe Biden’s relaxation of predecessor Donald Trump’s ruthless border policy, flying from countries such as Romania and Latvia to
Mexico before crossing the Rio Grande.
Border agents patrolling the river confirmed that they have seen an influx of Europeans since January 31, when the UK split from the EU.
One said: “Both America and Britain offer a similar safe life to these people. But given the choice of crossing the English Channel with children and babies or being rowed 70 yards across the Rio Grande in a rubber boat, I guess they feel we [America] are now a safer option.
“We all think Brexit is responsible, for sure. Most Europeans are flying through Paris into places like Cancun [in Mexico] and then making their way here.
“Ever since the beginning of February, we have seen the numbers increase.
“Because of Covid and the restrictions in Europe, it’s the path they have to take.”
Since Brexit, Romanians wanting to live and work in the UK must apply for a visa under a points-based immigration system. They must speak English to the required standard and have a job offer.
In 2018 Romanians overtook the Irish and Indians as the second biggest immigrant community after Poles in the UK.
However, they are now among the most vulnerable in Britain after Brexit, according to the East European Resource Centre – and some now see the UK as an unwelcoming place.
Over 30 years after the death of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and despite record 7% growth last year, communism has cast a long shadow over Romania and the country remains the second poorest EU member.
And since Brexit, Romanians seeking a better life elsewhere have found the once-easy access to the UK now closed.
One Romanian migrant, Sirbu Funeriu, 33, arrived in the US with his wife Cristina and two children aged 18 months and five years.
They were picked up by US Border Patrol after paying £2,700 to the cartels to take them across the Rio Grande.
Engineer Sirbu said they had left their home in Ghimbav, near Brasov, on April 15, and flown to Mexico via Paris.
He explained that two years ago they planned to move to the UK, but Brexit put paid to their plans as they felt there would be animosity towards them.
After crossing into the US they were picked up and are now being processed while being held in a detainment centre.
Just weeks after Mr Biden took office, the number of unaccompanied minors
We all think Brexit is responsible for sure
US BORDER AGENT PATROLLING RIO GRANDE
Our lives are in the cartels’ hands but faced with violence back home we had no choice
MIGRANT FROM SAN SALVADOR TELLS WHY HE TOOK THE RISK
arriving at the US-Mexico border began to soar, overwhelming the federal government’s resources and resulting in a scramble to find enough shelter space to accommodate them.
The volume of arrivals, combined with an unprepared administration, left thousands of children languishing in jail-like Border Patrol facilities, often for longer than the 72-hour limit set by federal law.
The Biden administration is now scrambling to control the biggest surge in 20 years, with the nation on pace for as many as two million migrants at the southern border this year – the outcome the President said he wanted to avoid.
The scale of the issue can be seen on the banks of the Rio Grande, where scattered for miles are the punctured dinghies and life jackets used by the human smugglers, known as coyotes.
There are also thousands of colourful rippedoff wristbands issued by the drug cartels to identify migrants who have paid them for passage across the river. The different colours highlight how many times they have tried to cross and who is eligible to cross again if they have been sent back.
The wristbands we saw had different colours and words. Some read “entregadas”, meaning delivered. Others read “llegadas”, or arrivals.
Those with red bands are first-time crossers, while yellow denotes those who have tried before and were sent back. As well as the physical peril of their journey, the migrants are in great danger once in the clutches of the highly organised cartels.
As the gangs’ drug-smuggling operations were hindered by Covid they have turned Mr Biden’s softer border policy into a multi-milliondollar money-making scheme.
In their border warehouses, cocaine has made way for a new cargo of people, including Europeans, who now wait their turn to be shipped.
Despite the primitive methods they use to ferry migrants across the river, the cartels operate sophisticated schemes for this side of their business. They collect masses of data from those they traffic, learning how and where to reach family members of those they smuggle across.
Highlighting the threat they face, a 29-year-old from San Salvador who we met after making the trip across the Rio Grande told us: “Our lives are literally in their [the cartels’] hands.
“But, faced with the violence back home, we had no choice.
“We had to take the risk of starting a new life in America.”