Huntsville Item: Op-Ed: Human and drug trafficking fueled by cartels
Of the many crises afflicting our nation under President Joe Biden, the most egregious is the human and drug trafficking being fueled by the cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) at the southern border, leaving no corner of our country untouched by this evil. Tragically, children and young adults are the most vulnerable victims of the cartels.
Human trafficking is the world’s second-largest criminal industry, generating an estimated $150 billion annually and enslaving nearly 50 million people, as of 2021. That’s approximately six times the population of New York City. Even more devastating, approximately a fifth of all victims are children, with a child or teen sold into slavery every 30 seconds. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration’s destructive immigration policies are only making the problem worse, particularly at our southern border.
As the human trafficking industry expands, the U.S. Department of State estimates between 14,500 and 17,500 victims are trafficked within the United States each year, and an estimated 72% of these victims are immigrants. Painting an even grimmer picture, more than 370,000 unaccompanied children have come to our southern border unlawfully under President Biden, and studies show that 60% of unaccompanied migrant children are caught by cartels and exploited through child pornography and drug trafficking. Only 1% of victims are rescued. It’s a problem we cannot afford to ignore.
The cartels at the southern border are also running one of the most extensive drug trafficking operations in the world, with a major emphasis on fentanyl. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has seized more than 22,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border so far in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, surpassing totals for all of FY22. It takes just two milligrams to kill an adult, making it the most lethal drug our nation has ever encountered. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in 18-45 year olds, and in just over a year, the United States has seen nearly 100,000 deadly overdoses from this lethal drug.
Further, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized 58.4 million fake pills containing fentanyl and more than 13,000 pounds of fentanyl powder in 2022, more than double the amount of fake prescription pills that it seized in 2021. The DEA estimates that these seizures represent approximately 387.6 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl, according to the Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program in the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Making matters worse, one of our major foreign adversaries, China, has dipped its hand in the proverbial cookie jar. China’s malign influence has not only been responsible for pervasive military intellectual property theft and gross abuse of human rights, but also the fentanyl epidemic. Chinese labs produce fentanyl precursors and send them to Mexican drug cartels where it is then manufactured into fentanyl and smuggled across our border. The Biden Administration’s weakness on the world stage and its failed border policies have created an open lane for cartels to exploit and endanger Americans and profit from it.
The health, safety, and security of our nation are gravely threatened by Mexican cartels, who pose a clear and present threat. These traffickers have large covert operations and unless we take bold, decisive action to combat these nefarious actors, the human and drug trafficking crises will only continue to grow.
Our country is under attack. Not only do we have to come together to provide our border patrol with the necessary tools and resources they need to secure the border and put a stop to trafficking of all kinds, but we must aggressively go after the cartels trafficking vulnerable women and children and infiltrating our communities with deadly drugs. This evil must be eliminated.