Unsecured U.S. Borders Benefit Arms Smugglers

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has a wide remit, including detecting illegal aliens, preventing counterfeit goods, and even preventing wildlife crime. CBP is also tasked with preventing the illegal trade in firearms. The abundance of firearms in the U.S. makes the country an appealing source for those who wish to smuggle weaponry into their home countries.
The Biden-Harris border crisis has seen CBP officers overworked and stretched thin as they process endless waves of illegal aliens. This has seriously eaten into the ability of CBP to stop illegal firearms trafficking, and criminal actors throughout the Americas have taken note and taken advantage of it. CBP data show that between Fiscal Years 2022 and 2024, there was a 400 percent increase in long guns being intercepted as bad actors attempted to take them out of the U.S. and into another country. This has impacted several countries.
In Haiti, 80 percent of the weapons seized were linked back to the U.S., with straw purchases by U.S.-based Haitian migrants being a common way of obtaining guns. In February 2024, Florida-based Haitian national Jocelyn Dor was sentenced to 60 months in prison for her role in smuggling guns to a gang in Haiti responsible (among other things) for kidnapping U.S. citizens. In June 2024, Haitian gang member Joly Germine was sentenced to 35 years in jail, and his partner was sentenced to 150 months in prison for their roles in violating export controls to send guns to Haiti. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that certain firearms for sale in the U.S. at $400 could be sold to gangs in Haiti for up to $10,000. That is a huge markup.
Guns smuggled out of the U.S. have been involved in Mexico’s cartel wars. The U.S. Department of Justice has identified at least 13 states where the Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) cartel had established gun trafficking operations. Mexican authorities estimate that 70-90 percent of all guns used by cartels have their origin in the U.S., while the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) estimates a lower, but still significant figure of 68 percent.
The firearm homicide rate in Mexico increased by 94 percent between 2015 and 2022. This leads to spiraling violence and more gun smuggling. This has even created a market for illegally smuggled guns among ordinary citizens. As the Mexico Peace Index report of 2023 stated, “As criminals increasingly have access to and make use of guns to carry out crime, non-criminals may perceive a greater need to acquire firearms to protect themselves against armed assailants, which may then further encourage criminals to arm themselves.”
It is not just countries in the Americas that are being impacted by gun smuggling, and the inability of overworked and distracted CBP officers to stop it. In December 2024, an illegal alien named Shenghua Wen from China, residing in Ontario, California, was charged with smuggling weapons and ammunition to North Korea. He reportedly told investigators the North Korean government had wired him $2 million to buy weapons on their behalf in the U.S. and had been recruited to smuggle them because he was “good at it.” It was allegedly his belief that the weapons would be used in a future surprise attack on South Korea, a key U.S. ally.
Open borders bring a myriad of problems, and arms smuggling is just one of them. Not only can this pose dangers to Americans, but it can also spill over into other countries, violently destabilizing them and potentially driving more immigration, which amounts to a lose-lose proposition.
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