By Todd Bensman as published August 16, 2019 by the Center for Immigration Studies PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico — Last month in Juarez, I interviewed Central American migrants planning to return to their home countries rather than waiting in Mexico for U.S. asylum hearings. More than 25,000 of them had been ejected under President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy. In a July 22 … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Mexico: Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” Policy, Returned Migrants Crashing the Border
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On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
In Juarez, confirmation that Trump's Remain in Mexico policy is driving asylum claimant decisions to return home. In two Juarez city shelters, a Honduran mother of two children, a young single Honduran woman, and a young single man from Guatemalan say they're going home rather than to lose the prospect of living illegally in the United States. Bensman interviewing a Honduran asylum seeker in … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
Gunrunning to Mexico Part IV: Bingeing on bullets
So loosely regulated and available is American ammunition that Mexican smugglers are simply dropping over on day shopping visas to cruise a bounty of stores within the 25-mile deep commercial zone where they can legally wander. Judging by prosecutions and seizures, the day-trippers are doing their part to bring home huge quantities of bullets. The one law that applies to ammunition purchases … [Read more...] about Gunrunning to Mexico Part IV: Bingeing on bullets
Gunrunning to Mexico Part III: Buyers remorseless
How “straw purchasers” in the U.S. find a big bang for their buck for Mexico’s drug thugs Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo pled guilty to dealing guns without a federal license after ATF agents caught him hiring a “straw buyer” to purchase guns favored by cartels Photo by Todd Bensman Crucial to the flow of guns into Mexico are networks of straw buyers — U.S. citizens with clean criminal … [Read more...] about Gunrunning to Mexico Part III: Buyers remorseless
Gunrunning to Mexico Part II: The sellers: merchants torn between profit and conscience
How flexible laws, a blissful ignorance and profit motive enable U.S. gun retailers to feed Mexico’s bloody civil war Diana Villarreal of “Mando’s Guns and Ammo” Photo by Jerry Lara International gun trafficking prosecutions against licensed gun dealers are relatively rare. The law provides more protection to sellers than to any other part of the supply chain delivering weapons to Mexico’s … [Read more...] about Gunrunning to Mexico Part II: The sellers: merchants torn between profit and conscience
Gunrunning to Mexico Part I: Gunrunner’s Land of Plenty
These stories document Mexico’s black market hunger for American guns. The hidden cross-border trade is hardly a new phenomenon and for decades has occupied a back burner in the national policies of both countries. But with Mexico’s drug war body count surpassing 6,000 in a single year, 2008, a figure that almost flatters the number of American dead in Iraq, the weapons smuggling issue has been … [Read more...] about Gunrunning to Mexico Part I: Gunrunner’s Land of Plenty
ISIS Commander Arrested in Hungary Held Refugee Passport Enabling Unrestricted Air Travel
Budapest, Hungary Parliament Building, Photo by Todd Bensman The arrest of Hassan also raises the question of whether Greece, as a key refugee transit country, is properly vetting higher risk migrants for potential ties to ISIS before granting refugee status and conferring its benefits. The United States has reportedly been assisting Greece, to some extent, in vetting incoming migrants … [Read more...] about ISIS Commander Arrested in Hungary Held Refugee Passport Enabling Unrestricted Air Travel
Report from Hungary’s Fenced Borderlands
Not lost on the Hungarians, at least, are the parallels to the current mass illegal migration from Central America over America's southern border, projected to exceed one million in 2019, and as President Donald Trump contemplates building barriers and closing the U.S.-Mexico border. But while Hungary's fence-with-policies model may not easily transfer, the model's very effectiveness justifies … [Read more...] about Report from Hungary’s Fenced Borderlands
Reporting from Panama and Costa Rica: Evidence that Central American Countries Help Middle Easterners and Terrorist Suspects Illegally Enter The United States
In December 2018, the Center for Immigration Studies dispatched Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman to Panama and Costa Rica to investigate President Donald Trump’s widely ridiculed assertions that suspected terrorists had been apprehended among Middle East migrants through Latin America. Hint: It was all true. Video reports, photos, and writings from the trip can be found here. and at … [Read more...] about Reporting from Panama and Costa Rica: Evidence that Central American Countries Help Middle Easterners and Terrorist Suspects Illegally Enter The United States
The Hero Texas Cop Who Killed Two ISIS Terrorists Mid-Attack
JUNE 16, 2016 BY TODD BENSMAN I enjoyed the honor of nominating Garland Police Department Officer Gregory Stevens for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s “Director’s Award,” the agency’s highest for non-DPS personnel, for his heroic actions of May 3, 2015 and then the satisfaction of witnessing his receipt of it to a crowded, standing ovation. It happened at DPS headquarters this … [Read more...] about The Hero Texas Cop Who Killed Two ISIS Terrorists Mid-Attack