Drug cartels are using drones to pinpoint Border Patrol agents’ locations

Two Border Patrol Chiefs appeared before the House Oversight Committee and described the extraordinary challenges the agency is facing on the southern border. They said cartels are going to great lengths to avoid apprehension, that includes using drones and camouflage.  

In Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, cartels are using drones to pinpoint law enforcement positions, in an attempt to increase the chance of successful smuggling attempts. Chief Gloria Chavez says the sector can see 10,000 drone incursions a year. 

Chief Gloria Chavez: “We have made great progress in countering the threat of small unmanned platforms. However, the adversaries have 17 times the number of drones twice the amount of flight hours and unlimited funding to grow their operations.”

In Arizona, Chief John Modlin says agents are not encountering families seeking asylum, rather single adult men, many of whom have criminal histories. They wear camouflage, run and even fight agents to avoid apprehension. 

Modlin: “Many are previously deported felons who know they’re inadmissible to the United States, and many pose a serious threat to our communities.”

Chief Modlin says for an added fee, the immigrants are given cell phones to navigate through the desert and mountains. Cartels saturate the area with large groups to overwhelm agents. They even recruit American high schoolers on social media to drive immigrants after they cross. It’s a very dangerous, sometimes deadly and illegal venture. 

Modlin: “no one crosses in the Tucson sector without going through the cartels.” “In the Tucson sector, everything south of the border is controlled by the cartels.” 

As for the politics, Republican Chairman James Comer says it’s President Biden’s fault. 

Comer: “President Biden and his administration have created the worst border crisis in American history. The cartels are leveraging chaos at the border.”

The top Democrat on the committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin, says Republicans have voted against bills that could have helped the situation, and have not presented a solution.

Raskin: “Our basic problem is a political one legal channels of immigration have been choked off in the wake of congressional failure to act in bipartisan fashion on immigration policy.”

One thing did receive bipartisan support, stopping the flow of fentanyl. That was described as a matter of life and death. For more border and immigration news, stick with Straight Arrow News for unbiased, Straight Facts.