Mexican cartels, whose migrant-smuggling profits surged under President Joe Biden, are increasingly turning to Pacific Ocean routes as President Donald Trump’s administration tightens enforcement at the southern border. For the past six months, the administration says it has stopped releasing illegal border crossers into the U.S., contributing to a sharp drop in migrant encounters and prompting smugglers to adapt with more sea-based operations along the California coast, according to a Daily Wire report.
Under the Biden administration, Mexican cartels’ profits from migrant smuggling were estimated to have risen from about $500 million in 2018 to roughly $13 billion in 2022, according to a New York Times analysis cited by The Daily Wire. The Daily Wire reports that this revenue, driven largely by human smuggling, at times rivaled or exceeded earnings from parts of the cartels’ drug trade.
Border Patrol agents were directed under then-President Biden to quickly release many illegal border crossers into the United States, a practice some agents likened to assisting smugglers, The Daily Wire notes.
Since Trump’s return to office, the administration has, over the last six months, stopped releasing illegal border crossers into the country, according to The Daily Wire. The outlet reports that this policy effectively dismantled the prior "catch-and-release" approach and has coincided with migrant encounters falling to what it describes as record lows.
In response to the tighter land enforcement, smugglers have increasingly turned to maritime routes to sustain their profits, focusing on the Pacific coast, The Daily Wire reports.
Along the California coastline, the pace of Coast Guard interdictions of boats carrying illegal immigrants has remained high. The Coast Guard encountered “well over” 2,000 illegal immigrants at sea in the last fiscal year, and maritime traffic has stayed “fairly steady,” with interdictions ticking up, Coast Guard Capt. Jason Hagen, the southwest district chief of enforcement, told The Daily Wire. “As you lock down the land border, the cartels will need to make their money, so they push to the maritime, to the water side. And, unfortunately, there is no border wall in the ocean; we’re challenged with the tyranny of distance,” Hagen said.
Recent cases off Southern California underscore the risks. Earlier this month, Coast Guardsmen in San Diego’s Mission Bay fired several rounds to disable the engine of a 20-foot smuggling boat carrying 12 illegal immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador as the vessel tried to flee, according to a Coast Guard account cited by The Daily Wire.
Days later, Navy sailors encountered a small boat with 17 illegal migrants near San Clemente Island; U.S. Border Patrol agents subsequently took the group into custody, as detailed in a Customs and Border Protection report referenced by The Daily Wire.
In another incident, at least four illegal migrants died when their vessel capsized off Imperial Beach. The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Mexican man believed to have captained the boat with "Bringing in Aliens Resulting in Death" and "Bringing in Aliens for Financial Gain," offenses that could result in a life sentence, according to federal prosecutors cited in The Daily Wire.
"It’s a dangerous game, and I can tell you the cartels are not in the business of safety, they’re in the business of money," Hagen told The Daily Wire.
Smuggling fees for maritime crossings have also climbed. Under the Biden administration, cartels charged between $10,000 and $15,000 for sea voyages, but now demand between $20,000 and $40,000, Manny Bayon, president of the Border Patrol union’s San Diego chapter, told The Daily Wire. Bayon said smuggling on the Pacific has increased "due to the increased enforcement on the southern border."
Federal authorities are preparing to install additional thermal imaging cameras along the coast to detect smuggling activity earlier, according to plans reported by the Los Angeles Times and cited by The Daily Wire.
