JUNE 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 6.1

AROUND THE COUNTRY YOU

AROUND THE COUNTRY YOU CAN’T HIDE THE BORDER IS COMING TO YOUR TOWN By Paul Goldenberg and Michael Gips Communities far from the border are confronting complex criminal issues spawned by the unbridled flood of illegal migrants In Sheriff Kieran Donahue’s County, fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin from Mexico flow freely. Overdoses are spiking. Families are fracturing. Human trafficking is taking its toll. Follow-on crime is affecting an already fragile economy. Sheriff Donahue isn’t in McAllen, Texas, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Bisbee, Arizona, or anywhere else along the 1,954 miles that the U.S. and Mexico share as a border. In fact, he’s about as far away as you can get – Canyon County, Idaho, which sits just west of Boise. Every conceivable record related to migrant crossings, rescues and deaths is reaching historical heights for 2022. HE’S NOT AN OUTLIER. Like Sheriff Donahue, law enforcement officials in communities far from the border are confronting complex criminal issues spawned by the unbridled flood of illegal migrants, many of whom are victims of human trafficking and smuggling operations run by the cartels. County sheriffs and police departments facing budget cuts and rising crime, by no choice of their own, now find themselves assuming law enforcement national security duties for which they are ill-prepared and inadequately equipped. Every conceivable record related to migrant crossings, rescues and deaths is reaching historical heights In March alone, an estimated 62,000-plus border-crossers from Mexico eluded authorities; referred to as “gotaways.” Comparatively, FY2021 saw an estimated 400,000 “gotaways” compared to 300,000 in the first six months of FY2022. [3, 4] And it’s likely to get worse when the current administration lifts Title 42, a statute that prevents border crossings and authorizes removals to stop the spread of COVID-19. CARTELS BROADENING THEIR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE An unprecedented increase in deadly drugs like fentanyl, gang activity and human trafficking across all 50 states reflect expanding interests as the cartels seek to broaden their sphere of influence. They are now offering wads of cash to American teenagers to use their or their parents’ vehicles to travel south to load migrants and then transport them to preset destinations throughout the country. [5] The young drivers are coming from suburbs, cities and rural areas across America. The recruitment of these socalled “loaders” is occurring where parents aren’t looking; multiplayer online video games and youth-oriented apps such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. First-person shooter games are particularly ripe targets because the audience is overwhelmingly male, fascinated with weapons and perhaps intoxicated by the prospect of real-life action. Tragic accidents are mounting. Thirteen migrants recently died in a crash in Imperial Valley, California, in a vehicle believed to be operated by a teenaged loader. Cartels have mastered social media for recruitment, a page taken out of the playbooks of ISIS and other radical Islamic and white supremacist organizations and openly recruiting adolescents to do their bidding. This is not an idle comparison: I (author Paul Goldenberg) previously led DHS’s Foreign Fighter Task Force and can directly attest that the similarities for recruitment used by traditional extremist groups and the cartels are striking. Within a matter of months, ISIS achieved inordinate success in building a caliphate by leveraging social media as their primary recruiting tool, with glamour and excitement as partial rewards. Just as ISIS recruited from the Arab world and beyond – pulling many youths from Western backgrounds – the cartels are succeeding in luring loaders from as far away as Los Angeles, Chicago, and my home state of New Jersey. Cartels have cleverly calculated – and correctly so – that federal authorities will not devote resources to investigating or charging U.S. minors leaving local police, many of whom have little experience managing border-related criminality, left to handle the chaotic and deadly aftermath. Social media platforms contacted by concerned law enforcement officials have either been nonresponsive or indifferent. Nonetheless, the loaders themselves are just the leading edge of the crisis. Their excursions correspond with the surge in human trafficking and illegal importation of fentanyl. In fact, in a recent report, the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking stated bluntly: “One fact is clear: The availability of illegally manufactured synthetic opioids supplied to meet the country’s appetite for narcotics is a national crisis. These drugs are destroying lives and harming communities at historic levels.” [6] And they are coming from Mexico in droves. Fentanyl is killing people in places as distant as Spokane, Washington, and Bangor, Maine. Police, sheriffs, emergency workers and healthcare workers in midwestern and northeastern hamlets are dealing with addiction and overdose problems in their communities. THE IMPACT ON BORDER COMMUNITIES These days, in addition to fulfilling routine calls for service, dedicated law enforcement officials such as Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels and his valiant deputies, particularly those assigned to the Sabre Team now find themselves the de facto defenders of the American frontier. They work their regular crime-fighting shifts safeguarding the citizens of the county, then, when the sun sets over the desert terrain, they travel to the border region, in many instances the frontier may lie just a few hundred feet from the patios of their own homes. Deputies ad- 20 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 21