Traffickers from Mexico are now routinely operating in the Midwest, the Southeast, the Northwest, and increasingly in the Northeastern portion of the United States. In fiscal year 1998, there were 6,359 drug seizures along the Southwest border. Drug-related violence along the Texas border continues to increase. The situation is no better on the immigration side. More than 1.5 million illegal immigrants were apprehended along the Southwest border just last year.
Conservative estimates suggest that only one in four illegal aliens is apprehended.
But the numbers hide the dark, evil side of this issue of alien smuggling, violent assault against migrating women, and other suffering. I commend to my colleagues an article that appeared recently in the New York Times. Rick Lyman reported on a disturbing development where infants and young children, some possibly kidnapped and others who are rented, are used to trick border agents. INS has no facilities to house families, especially babies. So illegal aliens are simply released and asked to report for a later court date.