Border Report Live: Americans ‘dominate’ drug trafficking

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. border officials often notify news outlets of massive drug busts at ports of entry.

Most recently, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that in August, the San Diego Office of Field Operations seized 10,000 pounds of narcotics worth $24 million.

On Friday, CBP announced that border officers in Brownsville, Texas, seized 91.42 pounds of methamphetamine worth $840,000 at the Veterans International Bridge.

The bust in South Texas and at least three in San Diego involved Mexican men, some of whom had their visas or border-crossing privileges revoked.

However, the majority of drug trafficking cases involve U.S. citizens. According to the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, as many as 4 out of 5 convicted drug traffickers were U.S. citizens.

In this episode of Border Report Live, host Rudy Mireles and correspondent Julian Resendiz welcome David J. Bier, an expert on legal immigration, border security, and interior enforcement. Biers is the Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute and occupies the Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy. He recently published the results of a study titled, “US Citizens Were 80 Percent of All Convicted Drug Traffickers in 2024.” He discussed how the U.S. policies, like military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela or targeting migrants won’t change the fact the U.S. citizens are the overwhelming majority of traffickers.

Join the award-winning Border Report team at borderreport.com for a daily, in-depth discussion about people living, working and migrating along the U.S.-Mexico border.

You can also watch past episodes of the Border Report Live, highlighting not only immigration and border security, but cartel violence in Mexico, border trade, politics and the U.S. and Mexico’s ongoing water dispute on the border.

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