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Todd Bensman

From Journalism to Counterterrorism Intelligence - and Back.

  • Securing U.S. Borders
  • Terrorism & Homeland Security
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Permanent Collections

U.S. Lays Out Welcome Mat for Middle Eastern and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them: An Immigration Policy Disconnect

February 6, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By Todd Bensman as originally published February 5, 2020 by Creative Destruction Media TAPACHULA, Mexico – The matronly Mexican entrepreneur bustling to and fro in her seedy downtown restaurant is proud of the legacy embossed on the walls of her first eatery next door, but especially of the nickname – “Mama Africa” – that still has customers along a global underground railroad seeking her out … [Read more...] about U.S. Lays Out Welcome Mat for Middle Eastern and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them: An Immigration Policy Disconnect

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

Why 40,000 Migrants a Month Still Reach the U.S. Border: ‘Polleros’ Bypassing Mexican National Guard

January 30, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By many measures, the Mexican deployment of National Guard to roadblocks throughout the country's south has worked something like a miracle. But officials on the ground admit smugglers are figuring out ways around them. Indigenous Tzetzol natives called "polleros" are helping up to 40,000 migrants a month make it to the U.S. southern border. By Todd Bensman as originally published January 31, … [Read more...] about Why 40,000 Migrants a Month Still Reach the U.S. Border: ‘Polleros’ Bypassing Mexican National Guard

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

Video Report: Immigration Disconnect: U.S. Woos Middle Easterners and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them

January 30, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By Todd Bensman as published January 29, 2020 by the Center for Immigration Studies Officials high and low say that extra-continental migrants from the Middle East and everywhere else are exempt from the stew of new policies President Donald Trump has implemented mainly to deter Central Americans. Senior and lower-ranking DHS officials confirm that President Trump’s much-credited “Wait in … [Read more...] about Video Report: Immigration Disconnect: U.S. Woos Middle Easterners and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

Video: Why the 2020 Caravans Threaten the Fragile Success of Trump’s Border Policies

January 25, 2020 by Todd Bensman

Should even one of these testing, probing caravans be allowed to find and exploit a breach in the Mexican defense, or should President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) falter for a moment, many more will no doubt rise follow their predecessors through the breach. That's why the outcome of these battles between migrants and Mexican police and troops matter greatly to immediate future border … [Read more...] about Video: Why the 2020 Caravans Threaten the Fragile Success of Trump’s Border Policies

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

Dispatches from America’s Other Southern Border: Guatemala-Mexico

January 21, 2020 by Todd Bensman Leave a Comment

Implementation of President Donald Trump's cocktail of policies took time, with U.S. court challenges, trial and error, and planning necessities. But by the fall of 2019, the historic numbers of Central Americans crossing the U.S. border, to the tune of 100,000 a month — 144,000 in May 2019 alone — had plummeted to (still-high) pre-crisis levels. Understanding why is key to blunting future … [Read more...] about Dispatches from America’s Other Southern Border: Guatemala-Mexico

Filed Under: Featured, Foreign Correspondence

The Trump-Defeat-Gamble: U.S.-Bound Migrants in Mexico Calculating a Trump Electoral Defeat

January 19, 2020 by Todd Bensman

Dozens of politically woke migrants say their decisions to stay in Mexico are predicated on a Trump-defeat calculus. As Mexico has recently required of them, migrants will apply for Mexican asylum and wait for a long process of approval, then live for awhile in that country, in a gambit that Trump will be defeated in the November 2020 national U.S. election. Then, the calculus goes, the Democrats … [Read more...] about The Trump-Defeat-Gamble: U.S.-Bound Migrants in Mexico Calculating a Trump Electoral Defeat

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

8-Part Series: CIS Investigates Terror Travel Threat in Panama and Costa Rica

December 21, 2019 by Todd Bensman

LINK TO THE SERIES HERE President Donald Trump's claims that Middle Eastern migrants were traveling Central American routes to the U.S. border, among them some Islamic terrorists, spawned a confused national debate that never quite moved past disputes over just the basic facts. Such as: Can, have, and do migrants from countries of terrorism concern, where Islamic terrorist groups operate, … [Read more...] about 8-Part Series: CIS Investigates Terror Travel Threat in Panama and Costa Rica

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Uncategorized

Massive Stanford Ponzi Scheme Decimates Mexico City’s Jews

December 20, 2019 by Todd Bensman

In the late 2000s, Houston fraudster Robert Allen Stanford operated a massive Ponzi scheme that laid financial waste to Jewish organizations and individuals of every income level in Mexico and Latin America. A lawyer representing Latin American victims estimates that half of the one billion dollars lost in Mexico came from the capital’s 40,000-strong Jewish population. The smaller Jewish community … [Read more...] about Massive Stanford Ponzi Scheme Decimates Mexico City’s Jews

Filed Under: Magazine Work

Divine Retreat

December 20, 2019 by Todd Bensman

A mysterious ranch east of San Antonio, home to a Noah’s Ark of exotic animal species, serves as an opulent family haven for the iconoclastic leader of Light of the World Church, a controversial Mexico-based denomination followed by allegations of child sexual abuse and intimidation. Leader Samuel Juaquin Flores claims he and his family are deities with a direct link to Jesus. By TODD BENSMAN … [Read more...] about Divine Retreat

Filed Under: La Luz del Mundo Church's Mystery Sanctuary in Texas Exposed, Magazine Work, Permanent Collections

On the Ground in Mexico: Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” Policy, Returned Migrants Crashing the Border

August 18, 2019 by Todd Bensman

Whereas almost all Central Americans who illegally entered the United States prior to the new policy actively and immediately sought out U.S. Border Patrol agents so they could make their asylum claims and be quickly released legally, these migrants were planning to run, hide, and evade the Border Patrol at all costs to reach the American interior undetected. By Todd Bensman as published … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Mexico: Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” Policy, Returned Migrants Crashing the Border

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

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