Last weekend, I visited McAllen, Texas, a hotbed of activity in the recent immigration surge on the U.S. – Mexico border. I rode with U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on a boat with the Texas Department of Public Safety along the Rio Grande River and toured one of the busiest processing centers in the country as it dealt with the flood of illegal aliens from Central America.
Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Jose Rodriguez, regional commander of DPS (pictured left-right here), led the briefing on Operation Strong Safety, the surge operation ordered by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in June to address the growing crisis on the border. They told us the surge is aimed primarily at fighting the drug cartels and human smuggling operatives that control much of the Rio Grande Valley border.
McCraw and Rodriguez said these Transnational Criminal Organizations are fueling the influx of illegal aliens coming from Central America. They believe TCOs are behind the media stories and advertisements in countries such as Honduras that encourage people to come and that they serve as coyotes/human smugglers. Criminals benefit from immigration surges: When border officials are overwhelmed by a flood of immigrants, their attention is diverted from monitoring drug smuggling.
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