President Obama will be in El Paso today to make an address on immigration reform, one day after drug-related violence claimed the lives of 13 people on the Texas-Mexico border. Let’s hope his initiative also takes into account the role of the Mexican cartels in the trafficking of humans from Central America, through Mexico and into the U.S. When the role of the cartels is seen from a broader, strategic, perspective, it is obvious that Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTO) or cartels, enable a massive and fluid movement of migrants who enter Mexico from China or Central America and make their way north to the U.S.
The Zeta DTO has gained notoriety among Mexico’s cartels that have been involved in trafficking humans, especially along the Texas-Mexico border, and most recently along the Guatemala-Mexico border. As the Zetas have evolved in the last five years from an internal security organization into an independent DTO, they have expanded their criminal roles to include many other traditional organized crime activities, including human smuggling.
The Zetas have controlled access to significant stretches of the Texas-Mexico border for a decade or more, first by exacting a “piso” or tax levy on first-level smugglers — or “coyotes” — of at least $400 for each person smuggled across their turf — then by kidnapping and holding Central American migrants hostage for ransom or for forced servitude among the Zeta Warfighters ranks.
Most recently, the Zetas have been named as responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians, the bodies of which were discovered last month in mass clandestine graves, or “narcofosas,” in the area of San Fernando, Tamaulipas, located in northeastern Mexico. Some of the victims have been identified as Mexican nationals, but Central American migrants have been also been identified among the corpses. Some reports indicate that the migrants were killed for refusing to be coerced into joining the Zetas as involuntary gunfighters.
The victimization of migrants, through the payment of piso for transit rights, coupled with their increasing murder for failing to comply with DTO needs, adds another dimension to the level of criminality that the Zetas and other cartels have developed. Not only have the DTOs continued to kill each other in their bid for regional and territorial influence, but their need for manpower has reached a critical point that has translated into a form of genocide — the wanton murder of innocent non-combatant civilians, such as David and Tiffany Hartley who were attacked in Falcon Lake waters along the Texas-Mexico border last September while boating in Zeta territory. Yesterday, the Mexican Navy killed 12 Zetas encamped on a small island in Falcon Lake, near the area where the Hartleys were attacked. One Mexican Navy sailor was also killed during the engagement.
What can be done? Here are some ideas:
- The U.S. should consider assisting Mexico by establishing federal control of the Mexico-Guatemala border as a stop-gap to both help protect migrants from abuse and death as they make their way north, and as a manner by which fewer migrants eventually enter the United States illegally.
- The U.S. should consider establishing a list of the most prominent Mexican human smuggling organizations (HSO) and publicly identify those smugglers or organizations that are involved in the movement of migrants across the U.S. border. This list could be posted on a website similar to how registered sex offenders are publicly identified.
- This list of HSOs should be included on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of sanctioned organizations. This would publicly identify the HSOs and preclude U.S. persons or companies from doing business with those Mexican criminals.
- The U.S. may want to consider establishing a “Guest Worker” — or “Gastarbeiter” — program to allow for the orderly and organized arrival of migrants from various countries, especially Central Americans, into the U.S. so that they are less susceptible to human rights abuses at the hands of Mexican HSOs and DTOs.
Immigration policy and reform are complicated issues that need urgent attention given the continuous flow of migrants into the United States. The Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the pedestal of Statue of Liberty that reads: “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses” now has added importance and should perhaps be amended to add: “give me your victims” as well, so that we may provide safe haven to the many innocents who are being exploited, abused or killed … all for the love of America.
Gary J. Hale is the nonresident fellow in drug policy at the Baker Institute. From 2000 to 2010, he held the position of chief of intelligence in the Houston Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). From 1990 to 1997, Hale had various assignments in Washington, D.C., including serving as chief of the Heroin Investigations Support Unit, chief of the Dangerous Drugs Intelligence Unit and liaison to the National Security Agency. During this period, he also served a tour of duty at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia. From 1997 to 1998, Hale was assigned as the DEA intelligence chief at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. In 1990, Hale received the DEA Administrator’s Award, the agency’s highest recognition.