Mexican drug cartels exploit asylum system by claiming ‘credible fear’

The House Judiciary Committee has begun looking at reports that Mexican drug cartel members are abusing the U.S. asylum system to bypass regular immigration checks and get into the country, where some are setting up smuggling operations and others engage in the same violent feuds that caused them to flee Mexico in the first place. In one instance, a woman made a claim of asylum and three months later was apprehended at a Border Patrol checkpoint with more than $1 million in cocaine, according to a memo obtained by the committee that says criminal gangs are exploiting holes in the asylum system. The memo, viewed by The Washington Times, also details cartel hit-squad members who won access to the U.S. after claiming they feared violence after they “fell out of grace” with their employers. In another case listed in the memo, two families involved in drug trafficking came to the U.S. claiming “credible fear” of persecution, then began targeting each other once they were here. “It’s outrageous that members of Mexican drug cartels and others involved in illicit activity are so easily able to exploit our asylum laws and live in the U.S. virtually undetected,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican. The rising violence from drug cartels has spawned many of the cases, with Mexican nationals saying they fear for their lives because of family ties or even because of where they live. In the case of the woman caught with $1 million worth of drugs, the memo said she was married to someone involved with a smuggling operation in the El Paso, Texas, area. The memo, stamped “For Official Use Only” and dated Oct. 2, says it was written by the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats command in the El Paso sector of the border. A Judiciary Committee aide said the memo was obtained from a source within the Homeland Security Department and was circulated within the department...more