‘A criminal operation’
Wilmot, Porvaznik: Cartels at heart of border troubles
The cartels control all of the trafficking routes throughout Mexico and the ports of entry into the United States, with the Sinaloa Cartel controlling local drug trafficking. No load of drugs or group of migrants can cross the border without them getting paid.
And, Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot says it is the human smugglers who work for the cartels who are directly responsible for the humanitarian crisis now along the border, where large number of migrant families — mostly from Central America — continue to illegally cross into the country.
Wilmot explained that these migrant families are paying smugglers between $5,000 and $7,000 to be taken through the desert to a specific area of Yuma County’s border with Mexico, where there is typically limited infrastructure, so they can turn themselves into agents after they have crossed — and eventually request asylum.
“The cartels don’t like people going through the ports of entry because they don’t make any money that way,” Wilmot said. “This is a criminal operation at its best. Why even grow dope when you have a product that is walking up to you.”
The sheriff made the comments during a recent interview with the Yuma Sun in which he and Chief Patrol Agent of the Yuma Sector Anthony Porvaznik talked about the impact having a wall in Yuma County has made on illegal immigration and cross-border crimes.
“You just don’t know what is coming across the border,” Wilmot said. “People just think its families, but it is not.”
According to U.S. Custom and Border Protection statistics, since Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, some 53 large groups — defined as 100 or more migrants traveling together — have been apprehended across the entire U.S border with Mexico, totaling nearly 8,800 people.
Of those, nearly 85 percent were families and another 11.5 percent were children traveling alone. All but a few dozen of the migrants who came in groups were from three Central American nations: Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
To put the situation more into perspective, Wilmot explained that historically agents would send back anyone they caught trying to cross the border, which wasn’t much of a deterrent to preventing illegal entry, because people would keep trying over and over again.
Then, in 2006, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice implemented a joint initiative in the Yuma area called Operation Streamline, which was designed to prosecute anyone attempting to cross the border illegally or caught while involved in criminal activity.
According to Wilmot, the program turned out to be a key component of border security and stemmed the tide of illegal immigration and drug smuggling in Yuma County. He added that as a result Border Patrol apprehensions in the Yuma Sector plummeted 95 percent over the following years.
However, problems arose several years later when the DOJ announced that it would only be prosecuting repeat offenders who were caught in the country illegally — not first-time offenders — which Wilmot said led to an increase in illegal entries and drug smuggling attempts in Yuma County.
One example Wilmot provided was with backpackers, who would carry loads of marijuana, and other types of dope, across the desert in an attempt to smuggle it into the country. Because these types of cases were no longer being prosecuted federally, Wilmot explained that agents had no choice but to cut them loose if they had no criminal record after seizing their drugs.
In response, Wilmot deputized agents from the DEA, FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, and Yuma Border Patrol, so any backpacker or drug smuggler they apprehended could be charged and prosecuted by the Yuma County Attorney’s Office with a state crime.
But prosecuting on a county level, instead of federal, came with a hefty price tag, Wilmot said. It ended up costing sheriffs in Arizona about $29 million to house individuals who had committed crossborder crimes in various county jails while their cases were being adjudicated.
While there was a program designed to reimburse jails with federal dollars for the costs of incarcerating individuals who were apprehended in the country illegally called the State Criminal Alien Apprehension Program (SCAAP), Wilmot said he was only getting back about 5 cents to the dollar.
“What that meant was the local taxpayer had to cover the remainder of that cost,” Wilmot said.
However, when President Donald Trump took office he reinstated Operation Streamline’s “zero tolerance” practice of 100 percent prosecution of criminal aliens and illegal border-crossers, with Wilmot saying he hasn’t needed to take such drastic measures again.
Wilmot added that the only exception to Operation Streamline were parents traveling with children from countries other than Mexico, who could not be jailed along with their mothers or fathers. As such families traveling together were released under a deferred prosecution with papers that allowed them to travel to their destinations in the U.S., where they would later have to appear in court.
This practice, which is derisively called “catch and release,” also may have contributed to the recent surge of families illegally crossing the border. Word eventually got back to Central and South America that families traveling together would not be processed and allowed to continue its journey into the U.S.
“We are not prosecuting people who have children, which turned out to be a double-edged sword,” Wilmot said. “Word of this spread and that is what you are seeing today with migrants traveling in family units. This is something the (Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition) tried to warn congress about a while ago.”
Porvaznik added that in some cases, as a way to keep track of a family, someone would get an ankle bracelet. However, what was happening he said, is that as soon as families reached their destinations they would throw the paperwork away, cut off the ankle bracelet, and disappear.
“Our agents have recovered the paperwork in a dumpster at a bus station in Charleston S.C,” Porvaznik said..
The reality, Porvaznik said, is that Border Patrol agents are catching anywhere from 100-200 illegal entrants a day in the Yuma Sector, and that it is not uncommon to apprehend more than a 1,000 in a week — due to the large groups of migrant families.
Making matters worse is that when the border is flooded with these large groups of migrant families and unaccompanied minors, agents are diverted in response. Cartels, he added, know this and will often use the opportunity to attempt to smuggle a “high-value cargo” across the border, realizing they have a better chance for success.
Based on interviews with some members of these large groups, Porvaznik said a “majority” of the migrants came to the U.S. illegally from Guatemala, and they seemingly have three final destinations currently, which are Charleston, S.C.; Oakland, Calif.; and Homestead, Fla.
Once there, Porvaznik said they go to a pre-arranged location, such as an apartment complex or trailer park, where they are given false documents, a fake social security card, and a drivers license. They then go find a job.
In some cases that job is with the smugglers, where the migrants in some instances continue to work for the smugglers to pay off their debts. Yuma Sector agents recently went to Charleston, S.C., to arrest the foreman of a job site, who was part of an extensive operation.
“There is currently an ongoing investigation These migrants would be given a job, and when they get their paychecks, they would be paying a portion of it back to the smuggler,” Porvaznik said. “We found a ledger that has the information in it. This would typically last for about two years.”
Migrants during interviews have also told agents that they are lied to by smugglers, who made promises of assistance, financial gain, and protected immigration status.
Porvaznik said human smuggling makes transnational criminal smuggling organizations, such as cartels, millions of dollars a year, and that they have no concern for the migrant’s lives, only seeing them as cargo.
Since smugglers only value profit, migrants are suffering from dehydration, illness, injuries and are almost always in constant danger.
Among the examples Porvaznik gave was when a 3-year-old child recently fell from the top of a 16-foot high wall. Fortunately, her injuries were minor. Another instance involved a 14-year-old girl who suffered multiple broken vertebrae in her back and had to be flown to a Phoenixarea hospital for treatment after she tried to jump over the wall.
Another time, agents encountered a mother with an extremely sick 5-week-old baby.
Porvaznik stressed there are better ways for migrants to present their cases — ways that are legal and will not endanger their lives.
The White House has announced a new policy in which migrants who enter illegally will be taken to Mexico and told to seek asylum there, but the Yuma Sector has not received that directive yet. In fiscal year 2016, the Executive Office for Immigration Review granted only 13 percent of claims, including credible fear cases.
James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 5396854. Find him on Facebook at www. Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert.