MONTANA – Thursday night, 19 U.S. Senators, led by Border Patrol, visited the Mexico border along the Rio Grande River. Among them was Senator Steve Daines. On a press conference call with reporters, Sen. Daines detailed what he saw, and talked about the current situation at the border.
“We watched, in real time, crossings here on the Rio Grande. I was on the U.S. side, getting ready to watch more folks cross in a raft. We could hear Mexican cartel members with their flashlights. Very powerful floodlights shining at us from the Mexican side,” Sen. Daines said.
The senator says the cartels know that crossing the Rio Grande has a price.
“Sadly, these Mexican cartels are charging thousands of dollars per person to come across the southern border,” Sen. Daines said.
Signs on the ground mark a path through the foliage, for those crossing on foot to follow.
“They direct the illegal immigrants where to go once they cross the U.S. border so they can be apprehended and begin to be processed,” Sen. Daines said.
Women and children were seen in pens – a holding area for them when Border Patrol finds them. But what’s more alarming is the COVID-19 situation.
“They are seeing at least a 10% positive rate. In fact, we just saw young people that tested positive for COVID on one side of a fenced area, and the others on another side,” Sen. Daines said.
Sen. Daines was told there is a 1.2 million person backlog of asylum claims. But how does this all impact Montana? He says it’s drugs, specifically meth, heroin and fentanyl.
“If you speak with the DEA folks in Montana, they’ll tell you the source of meth, heroin and fentanyl is Mexico. It’s the Mexican cartels,” Sen. Daines said.
It’s another illegal business that causes big problems, but brings in big cash.
“They showed us a recent meth seizure, that they found here in this sector, that had a street value of over 2 million dollars,” Sen. Daines said.