In a recent meeting with the House Homeland Security Committee, expert Jaeson Jones detailed the reality of the Mexican drug cartels’ control of the United States southern border. They are causing unimaginable devastation, and it will continue as long as authorities allow this depravity to run the dividing line between the countries.

In his opening statement, Jones described his experience of joining border security and law enforcement on their patrol of highly traveled areas between the U.S. and Mexico. He gained firsthand knowledge of the danger posed to American citizens, as well as the untold human rights violations of the growing trafficking trade — largely brought about by weakened border policies.

Offering details that most of the public are unaware of, Jones, a former agent of the Texas Department of Public Safety, described the structure of the Mexican cartels today. They now operate as a parallel government in their own country, he said, and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seems powerless to stop them. Jones passionately urged the U.S. to designate these groups as foreign terrorist organizations. Otherwise, Jones warned, “the hundred thousand Americans we are losing year after year to date is just the beginning.”

He went on to remind the committee of a story he had broken in 2021 regarding the cartels’ new use of wristbands for the purpose of evolving their operations from human smuggling to the trafficking of men, women, and children. Each band is color-coded and corresponds with one of the numerous alien smuggling organizations, and they are being used to move people into the United States under debt bondage.

“What I am holding in my hand today, I want to be very clear: This is America’s new slave trade,” Jones said. “And now we have moved these people throughout the country … and we have sent a virus of debt bondage across the nation.”

In other testimony, Derek Maltz Sr. echoed the sentiments of Jones, providing the unequivocal statement that the cartels have “full control of the border.”

During an exchange between Florida Representative Kat Cammack and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Cammack help up a jar of the colorful wristbands and asked Becerra if he knew what they were.

Hesitantly, Becerra answered, “Looks like candies or snacks.”

Baffled at the ignorance of a member of an organization designed for the purpose of being informed on human rights issues, Cammack had to explain the horrific representation of these wristbands. She educated the oblivious leader of HHS that the bands were indicative of which cartel the person “belonged” to, how much they have paid, and who they are now indebted to upon entry into the U.S.

Cammack then described an encounter she recently witnessed at the southern border, backing up her experience with a photo that she took of the victim (a young girl, no older than four years old) and her captor.

“It was 11:46 at night. I, myself, took this photo,” Cammack said. “That little girl that you see” — pointing to the photos — “was acting terrified. Not of the agents, not of myself, but of the man holding her. The very next day at the Donna Processing facility, we threatened this man with a DNA test. He confessed that he, actually, was not her father, but that he had rented her.”

She went on: “This little girl was turned over to HHS custody. Your custody.”

Cammack then had to further educate Becerra, letting him know that this man was discovered to be a convicted sex offender. Furthermore, only around 9% of these so-called families are asked to provide DNA tests, and only 23% of the adults encountered by border security are undergoing background checks.

We have the testimony of experts. We have photo evidence presented by representatives who actually bothered to travel to the southern border and provide accurate reporting on the state of things. And we have numerous whistleblowers who have spoken up about the alarming reality of drug, human, and labor trafficking happening on a daily basis under the nose of the current administration. Yet DHS Security Alejandro Mayorkas continues to downplay the threat of cartel activity and claim that any attention brought to this issue is purely political.

The apathetic response from the Biden White House is unsurprising to anyone on the conservative side of the aisle. However, having a legitimate human crisis ignored by the very people who claim to be the leaders in compassion and humanity might be a shock to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is now regularly and publicly crying for help with alleviating the significant strain on resources and the threat to public safety that the influx of illegal immigrants is having on his city.

The streets, schools, hotels, and shelters of this self-declared “sanctuary city” have been overrun with people who have come to the United States illegally. Mayor Adams is now warning other U.S. cities that “eventually this is going to come to a neighborhood near you.” At the risk of sounding racist, he even argued, “We need to control the border.”

Returning to Jaeson Jones’s testimony, the cartels across the southern border of the U.S. are the greatest enemy and national security threat of our day. The president is refusing to address this unprecedented drug- and human-trafficking crisis despite taking his oath of office and pledging to protect the United States from all threats, both foreign and domestic.

The result is to aid in this surging market of dehumanization and death.