Securing America's Borders

By Todd Bensman as published June 11, 2021 by the Center for Immigration Studies On April 5, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a press release so unusual and politically problematic for the administration of President Joe Biden that it could not possibly survive the light of even one full day in publication. It didn’t. The bulletin disappeared from the federal border … [Read more...] about Amid Media Silence, Congressman Asks FBI Chief About Border-Jumping Yemenis

Parsing Immigration Policy Podcast, Episode 6 Summary Todd Bensman, the Center’s Senior National Security Fellow, traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas to investigate how the Border Patrol, Texas National Guard, and Texas Department of Public Safety are handling the influx of illegal immigrants. Having viewed this area – ground zero for illegal immigration crossings – by … [Read more...] about D-Day on the Rio Grande? The Biden Administration Facilitates Mass Illegal Immigration

By Todd Bensman as published June 2, 2021 by the Center for Immigration Studies A record 10,000 so-called ‘extra-continental’ migrants from around the world poured through the notoriously untamed Darian Gap jungle passage between Colombia and Panama, bound for the American border, during just in the single month of May, according to two journalists and a US congressman who recently returned … [Read more...] about Congressman, Journalists: Historic Surge of ‘Extra-Continental’ Immigrants Now Pouring Through Panama to US Border

One of the most unusual yet least-reported or publicly discussed aspects of the current mass-migration crisis is that law enforcement officers do not arrest the raft coyote smugglers anymore, even when they’re just feet away. As a result of this hands-off truce, those smugglers now freely and fearlessly do their work right in front of agents.  By Todd Bensman as originally published by the … [Read more...] about Washington Won’t Let Border Patrol Arrest Human Smugglers Offloading Immigrants in Front of Them

In all my years of working on the border, I had never witnessed anything like what I would see at just one of hundreds of openly established raft crossing points along the south Texas border, a reflective microcosm of a mass illegal immigration involving mainly families and children. All through that night and deep into the morning on the Texas riverbank, I watched what reminded me of a D-Day-like … [Read more...] about How Normalized Mass Illegal Immigration Looks and Feels

The State of Texas has invested heavily in a new border security operation to fill what Republican leaders perceive as a federal failure at the southern border with Mexico. It has deployed the Texas Department of Public Safety air, land, and marine. The last time DPS similarly invested in border security like this was an $800 million Operation Strong Safety during the Obama administration … [Read more...] about A US State Deploys Forces to the Mass Migration Border Crisis

By Mark Krikorian and Todd Bensman on May 6, 2021 Summary During his recent trips to both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, Todd Bensman, the senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, spoke with human smugglers and their migrant customers, as well as border agents and local residents. Bensman shares their stories about the consequences of U.S. … [Read more...] about What I Saw at the US-Mexico Border: A CIS Podcast

Why the mass migration crisis is more severe than official reporting suggests. What the general public sees each month are CBP figures that only reflect actual physical “apprehensions” or “encounters”, published as the primary indicator of how many people are illegally crossing the land borders. But got-away statistics would true the total numbers higher into politically uncomfortable … [Read more...] about ‘Got-Aways’ at the Border

By Todd Bensman as published April 28, 2021 for the Center for Immigration Studies OJINAGA, Mexico — The nine Central Americans filed single file from a Mexican customs building at the Presidio-Ojinaga International Bridge and out onto the street with no food, no plan and the heavy burden of bad luck. The US Border Patrol had caught them on a ranch about 80 or 100 miles inside Texas … [Read more...] about Inside a Cartel Smuggling Operation Into West Texas

'There's no one watching', a smuggler says By Todd Bensman as published on April 27, 2021 by the Center for Immigration Studies OJINAGA, Mexico — Under the international bridge connecting this town to Presidio, Texas, a human smuggling guide snorted cocaine with a buddy and two prostitutes — the chosen rewards for work leading a large group of Central American immigrants on a … [Read more...] about The Border Crisis Comes to a Once-Quiet part of West Texas