Biden DHS Blames Migrant Crisis On Cartel ‘Disinformation’ That The Border Is ‘Open’

Most immigrants do not spend fortunes on risky journeys based on disinformation from criminal strangers.

US asylum system a 'jewel': DHS Sec. Mayorkas claims 50% reduction in border crossings since Title 42's end



Department of Homeland Security's Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed border crossings are down 50% since Title 42 ended.

"Over the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has experienced a 50% drop in the number of encounters versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday," Mayorkas said Sunday morning on CNN's "State of the Union."

Mayorkas said it is too early to determine if the anticipated surge has peaked. He said the figures from the United States Border Patrol were 6,300 on Friday and about 4,200 Saturday. He added that the figure was around 10,000 earlier in the week.

The Biden appointee made remarks on ABC's "This Week" with anchor Jonathan Karl Sunday morning, as well.

Mayorkas told Karl he "respectfully disagrees" with a judge's ruling earlier this week taking aim at a DHS policy that allowed some migrants to be released without a court date due to overcrowding.

Mayorkas attributed the surprising figures he gave to both outlets to "months and months" of advanced planning in preparation for the ending Title 42. He also said that communications efforts emphasizing "consequences" like possible deportation and a five-year ban on returning had helped stem the tide.

Over the past several days, from its Twitter account, DHS has posted short videos warning incoming migrants that the border is closed. Several of the tweets were posted in Haitian Creole and Spanish.

\u201cKontr\u00e8man ak Tit 42, lwa Tit 8 la yo enpoze konsekans imigrasyon ak krimin\u00e8l pou moun ki trav\u00e8se fwonty\u00e8 a ilegalman: sa gen ladan \u00f2donans final pou ekspilsyon, dep\u00f2tasyon, e yon ent\u00e8diksyon pou pa ka reyantre pandan senk lane. \u2b07\ufe0f \nhttps://t.co/ilo733Gfqd\u201d
— Homeland Security (@Homeland Security) 1683981905

Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that allowed incoming migrants to be denied entry based on the COVID pandemic. Title 42 ended Thursday. In the days leading up to its end, social media was awash in videos showing Texas officials behind concertina wire. Migrants, some with young children in tow, are seen scrambling up the riverbank on the opposite side of the makeshift barriers.

"The asylum system has been and continues to be a jewel of the United States," Mayorkas said on CNN when asked about the debate within the Democratic Party on how restrictive the United States should be when it comes to asylum claims.

"The cartels, the smuggling organizations, control the land. And so we have not only a security imperative, but a humanitarian responsibility to cut those smugglers out. And that's precisely what we, as an administration, [have] done," he also said, adding that more than 10,000 smugglers have already been arrested.

Throughout the week, Todd Bensman, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, shared multiple videos on Twitter of migrants making their way across the water between Matamoros, Mexico and the Brownsville, Texas area on the opposite side.

Bensman described what he witnessed as a "human flood" and "terrible for the American public Wednesday, the day before Title 42 ended.

\u201cTexas DPS blocking migrants from entering - rare footage\u201d
— Todd Bensman (@Todd Bensman) 1683727707

Watch a segment below of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's interview with CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" Sunday morning.

\u201c"The numbers that we have experienced over the past two days are markedly down"\n\nHomeland Security Secy Alejandro Mayorkas tells CNN's Dana Bash that the Biden administration has recorded a decrease in border crossings since Title 42 ended. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU\u201d
— CNN (@CNN) 1684070887

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Migrants' tents set ablaze; Mexican agency official blames migrants' frustration over CBP's mobile app



A portion of a large migrant tent encampment was set ablaze just across the Texas border in Matamoros Wednesday and Thursday, the Associated Press reported.

"The people fled as their tents were burned," said Gladys Cañas, who runs an advocacy organization for migrants called Ayudandoles A Triunfar.

The roughly two dozen rudimentary shelters set on fire were on the outskirts of a larger encampment comprising about 2,000 people, the outlet explained. The migrants living in the encampment are mostly from Venezuela, Haiti, and Mexico.

Photos of the destroyed tents show a grass and dirt-covered clearing strewn with plastic tarps, cardboard, debris, and a lean-to type structure. A dirt path is shown passing through the area.

No deaths or significant injuries were reported, the outlet reported.

Juan José Rodríguez, director of the state agency Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants, says migrants set the fire because they were frustrated with the mobile app the United States government has deployed to set up appointment times for people to turn up at the border to make asylum claims. The state agency denied knowledge of gangs being responsible for the fire.

One witness, a Mexican woman called "Margerita," spoke to the outlet on the condition that her last name would not be published. Margerita said that though gangs had threatened migrants illegally wading across the river, the crossings continued. Some such criminals reportedly extort migrants for money in exchange for safe passage through territory they control.

Matamoros, in Mexican state of Tamaulipas, sits on the southern bank of the Rio Grande. Brownsville, Texas sits directly across the river from Matamoros on its northern bank.

A fire at an immigration facility in Ciudad Juárez March 28 left 39 migrants dead and 29 others injured, as TheBlaze reported. Ciudad Juárez is just across the border from El Paso, Texas. In that fire, the migrants detained there reportedly set the fire themselves as a means for protest on learning they would be deported.

Four United States citizens were violently kidnapped in Matamoros March 3, as TheBlaze reported. One of the two South Carolina residents who survived the kidnapping, 34-year-old Latavia Washington McGee, was arrested in a separate incident involving allegedly contributing to the delinquency of a minor by bringing a gun to a kids' fight, the New York Post reported.

The fire in the encampment at Matamoros comes as officials prepare for a massive influx of migrants due to the ending of Title 42. Title 42, a Trump-administration policy that permitted U.S. authorities to turn back migrants based on the public health emergency brought about by COVID, is slated to end May 11.

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Identities of four kidnapped Americans revealed — and the reason for their trip to Mexico: 'We shouldn't go down'



The four Americans who were kidnapped after crossing into Mexico last Friday have now been identified.

Shocking video captured the moment that Latavia "Tay" McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Eric James Williams were kidnapped last Friday, shortly after they crossed into the Mexican border city of Matamoros. Their identities were reported by ABC News.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City said in a statement:

On March 03, 2023, four Americans crossed into Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates. Shortly after crossing into Mexico, unidentified gunmen fired upon the passengers in the vehicle. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men.

Zalandria Brown, whose younger brother is one of the victims, told the Associated Press that her brother and two friends were traveling with another friend who was scheduled to undergo a tummy tuck procedure in Mexico. Plastic surgery is significantly cheaper in Mexico, and Americans routinely travel there to receive cosmetic operations.

According to Brown, her brother was apprehensive about the trip because the group was aware of the dangers in Mexico, which is overrun by cartels. Matamoros is especially dangerous because it is where the Gulf Cartel is headquartered.

"Zindell kept saying, 'We shouldn’t go down,'" Brown recounted.

Video of the abduction showing armed cartel members carrying some of the victims later surfaced online. It was taken from what appears to be a second-story window of a building where the kidnapping took place. Brown called the footage "a bad dream."

"This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from," Brown told the AP. "To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable."

Barbara Burgess, the mother of McGee, confirmed that her daughter had traveled to Mexico to receive a cosmetic procedure. She told ABC News that she spoke to her daughter on Friday just before the abduction. When she later tried to call back, her phone went to voicemail.

Two of the Americans were found alive on Tuesday morning. The other two were found dead. They were dropped off at a medical clinic in Matamoros, CNN reported.

U.S. officials reportedly believe they were targeted after being misidentified as Haitian smugglers.

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4 Americans fired upon, kidnapped near Mexico border; FBI offers $50,000 reward for their return, assailants' arrest



Four United States citizens were violently kidnapped at gunpoint in Matamoros, Mexico, Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement Monday.

"We have no greater priority than the safety of our citizens – this is the US government’s most fundamental role," Salarzar's statement said in part.

"US law enforcement officials from numerous agencies are working with Mexican authorities at all levels of government to secure the safe return of our compatriots," the statement also said.

The Americans crossed into Matamoros in a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico.

Matamoros is about 2.7 miles from Brownsville, Texas, just across the border into Mexico.

Shortly after crossing into Mexico, an unidentified gunman fired upon the passengers in the van. All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men, the statement also said.

The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of those involved. The FBI seeks the public's assistance in identifying the persons responsible for the assault and kidnapping. The agency encourages people with information regarding the investigation to call the FBI's San Antonio Division at 210-225-6741. Tips, which can be made anonymously, can be submitted online at https://tips.fbi.gov.

The assault and kidnapping may have resulted from a case of mistaken identity, CNN reported Monday, citing an unnamed U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation.

CNN's source says the Americans were "targeted by mistake and were not the intended victims." The same official said the group traveled to the border city for medical procedures, which the official apparently determined by receipts found in the vehicle.

Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the victims crossed the border to buy medicine and "ended up caught in the crossfire between two armed groups," according to CBS.

The U.S. Consulate in the cartel-plagued city issued a warning Friday instructing U.S. government employees to stay away from a specific area in Matamoros after reports indicated one individual had been killed.

The advisory also reminded U.S. citizens that Tamaulipas, the state in which Matamoros is situated, is classified as "Level 4: Do Not Travel" in the State Department's travel advisory for the country. The "Do Not Travel" advisory for Tamaulipas state is due to crime and kidnapping.

CBS shared a video on Twitter that appears to show a portion of the disturbing event. In the video, one woman is forcefully walked toward and then shoved into the bed of a white pickup truck. Later in the video, armed men are shown dragging and throwing another person next to the woman in the bed of the pickup.

TheBlaze cautions viewers that the below video, believed to show the moment assailants captured the victims, is quite graphic.

\u201cJust the usual dragging of bodies after a cartel shootout in broad daylight, today in Matamoros.\n\n#Mexico #Narcostate #FailedState\u201d
— David Wolf (@David Wolf) 1677889402

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Shocking New Federalist Documentary ‘Cartel Country’ Premieres Tuesday At 9:00 P.M. ET

From shelters to the Rio Grande, 'Cartel Country' goes where most of the media won't, revealing a tragic reality they ignore.