GAO says additional actions needed to secure northern border
At a recent Congressional hearing, Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, both said that because the southwest border was secure under the Trump administration, cartel and transnational criminal organizations had recently shifted focus to the northern border.
But prior to the second Trump administration, Mexican cartels had already expanded their operations, “flying people into Canada, which doesn’t require a visa, presenting an opportunity for terrorist watch-listed individuals to exploit. It’s much easier to get to Canada to come across,” former Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan told The Center Square two years ago.
Mexican cartel smuggling at the U.S.-Canada border isn’t new. During the Biden and Trudeau administrations, illegal activity increased to record levels, exploiting weak Canadian border security and lax visa policies, The Center Square reported based on Customs and Border Patrol data.
Under the Biden administration, the greatest number of known or suspected terrorists, 1,089, attempted to enter the U.S. from Canada, The Center Square exclusively reported from the CBP data.
Canadian groups have also identified extensive criminal networks. The International Coalition Against Illicit Economies argues the “biggest cross-border criminal security threats to Canada and the US are the staggering amounts of dirty money that is laundered in both countries by Mexican cartels, Chinese money laundering syndicates, and other transnational criminal organizations that finance greater insecurity and instability.”
Punjabi gangs have also been operating a billion-dollar drug supply network, trafficking heroin and methamphetamines from India to North America and Europe through Canada; the Hells Angels biker gang controls domestic drug distribution in Canada; and an Iranian crime network is a “silent partner in fentanyl smuggling” in Canada, ICAIE says, The Center Square reported.
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