At the southern border Mexican cartels are amassing fortunes while steering potential migrants into the United States. The chief patrol agent for the Tucson sector says, "no one crosses the border in the Tucson sector without going through the cartels." An illegal said on TV yesterday, as I write this, that he paid the cartels $7,000 to bring him to the border. Then I believe he paid more to be escorted into the country. In December 2022 there were over 300,000 apprehensions at the southern border -- the highest monthly total on record (five times higher than the average under the Trump administration.) With over 2 million illegal entries per year the cartels are making at least 10 billion dollars each year from their illegals. Many are previously deported felons who know they are inadmissible into the United States by regular entry. They represent a serious threat to our communities. Those who try to tag along without paying are beaten or raped.
The revenues from narcotics and human smuggling should be added to this income. I haven't seen an estimate of those, but they must be huge. There were over 100,000 deaths in this country last year associated with fentanyl which is smuggled over the border. This drug is the leading cause of death in the USA for adults aged 18 to 45. Many children are caught by the cartels and exploited for pornography or drug trafficking purposes. One estimate is that 60% of Latin American children who attempt to immigrate are exploited in this way.
The cartels have thus amassed a fortune by their activities, and it is hard to imagine how Mexico will recover from their grip. Many areas of that country are not recommended for US citizen travel. Those areas are essentially narco-states.
Back in this country money has greatly influenced the country's politics and resultant crime. George Soros, the multi-billionaire originally from Hungary, has bankrolled many far-left socialists who are soft on crime. He is estimated to have $32 billion to back his political empire. Several of his minions are entrenched in the White House. Some Soros-funded groups met secretly with Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, during his visit to the Southern border in April 2021. An Independant Sentinel writer has said that Soros "wants open borders as much as he wants to destroy our criminal justice system." Soros has spent $40 million in getting 75 far-left attorney generals elected to their posts. They represent one-fifth of all Americans. The following is a short list of some of these.
George Gascon, the Los Angeles County DA who was originally born in Cuba, was provided $4.7 million by Soros in his contentious election campaign which he won by a slim 2% margin. He advocated cash free bail, and co-authored Proposition 47 that reduced drug possession charges from a felony to a misdemeanor. His far-left agenda led to a recall. The initial vote showed the recall was successful by a small margin, but a recount mysteriously allowed several votes to be thrown out defeating the recall.
Buta Biberaj, the Loudoun County, Georgia DA was supported by almost $700,000 from Soros in her close election campaign. She has announced that she will not prosecute misdemeanor charges such as eluding police, hit-and-run accidents, reckless driving, failure to appear for trial and other such offenses. Of the 735 cases that were brought to her office only 8% went to trial.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA, was given over one million dollars by Soros for his election campaign. He has stopped prosecuting cases involving resisting arrest; has downgraded robberies using weapons; and has ceased prosecuting repeat shoplifters saying: "it isn't worth our time."
Steve Descano, DA of Fairfax County, Virginia received about 70% of his campaign funding from Soros. He said he does not require cash bail because "it exacerbates the socio-economic disparities" of society.
All of these DAs and many more received much of their funding from the wealthy socialist George Soros. Besides those efforts and those of the cartels, several other crimes have been committed involving efforts to defund the police. The beautiful city of Seattle was involved in "the summer of love" in 2021 when some districts were set on fire. The arsonists were not prosecuted. The resultant lack of sufficient police has led to an increase in crime. One barber recently had his shop broken into and was told that maybe he should move out of the city.
The solution to the increase in evil doing is not to be soft on crime. Police should not be replaced by social workers as some have advocated. Earlier this month Anthoney McRae shot dead three students at Michigan State University, and critically injured five others. Previously he had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a loaded firearm. His plea was in exchange for dropping a felony charge that would have required up to five years in prison. He received only probation, and then went on to commit his horrendous crime.
While I was composing the first draft of this column our state governor, Tate Reeves, made a comment that Jackson was the murder capital of the world. I don't know about "the world," but it is probably true for the state and perhaps further afield. The FBI crime rate for Jackson is 5,425 per 100,000 people. The state average is 2,637. The national average is 2,568. But there are conflicting data for many of the crime statistics. Several states and cities have not reported. However, the consensus seems to be that St. Louis is the worst city, followed by Baltimore and Detroit. Wherever we stand it is much too high and is a call for us to face the problem. If we wish to have our city and land healed, then the bible tells us there is a prescription (1 Chronicles 7 v 14.) We need a spiritual revival.
Peter Gilderson, Madison.
