Of all the institutions in our society today, few have supported the normalization of illegal immigration as much as academia. How bad has it gotten? Schools are now soliciting donors to pay off cartels that traffic their students across the border.
An assistant principal at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence, R.I., sent an email to staff members asking for donations to pay off a human trafficker at the border, also known as a coyote, who had apparently smuggled a student at the school into the U.S. illegally.
“We have a student who came to America with ‘Coyote’, which is a group that helps people,” the leaked email said. “This group gives you a time frame to make a payment of $5,000 to those, who bring them into the states.”
Facing criticism for the letter, the school later backtracked and said all funds raised for human smugglers will be returned. Nevertheless, the stunning email is indicative of the movement to normalize illegal immigration, and the fundamental breakdown of the rule of law occurring all across the country. It’s hard to think of a more Orwellian description of human traffickers than as “a group that helps people,” but that’s exactly how many on the left see our immigration system.
Anti-borders advocates genuinely see human smuggling groups as a force for good, and law enforcement agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol as forces for evil. They believe that by encouraging young, vulnerable people to make the treacherous journey through Central America to the U.S., they are being helpful and compassionate. They could not be more wrong.
In reality, it’s hard to think of a more malignant group of people than coyotes. These people prey on the poor in other countries, charge them obscene amounts of money, and then illegally traffic them into the U.S. Young girls who are trafficked by coyotes are routinely raped, abused, and sometimes even sold into sexual slavery.
It is hard to imagine the mentality of any parent who would hire coyotes to traffic their child into the U.S. It is possible that these parents believe the same lies about the cartels that the school administrator in Rhode Island does. It is also possible that parents who give their children over to the cartels understand the brutality of these organizations, but believe it is worth it to get their children into the U.S.
Regardless, the cartels have won a huge propaganda coup by convincing people that they are helping migrants instead of abusing them.
The cartels’ highly profitable business is part of why a record number of migrants died attempting to illegally enter the U.S. last year. The twisted efforts and worldview of illegal immigration activists has also led to the siege of our southern border and the breakdown of the rule of law in the U.S. Unfortunately, these beliefs are not just confined to woke administrators, but have become influential in the highest corridors of power.
The Biden Administration has spent more time demonizing its own Border Patrol agents with lies and smears than it has fighting the cartels. In fact, no administration has ever been better for the cartels than the current one. The cartels are reportedly earning around $13 billion a year smuggling aliens across the border, compared to only $500 million just a few years ago.
Cartels have essentially seized control of America’s border. That this has been accepted as normal by so many people is a disgrace and a tragedy. School administrators raising money for the cartels would have been unimaginable not too long ago. That it causes so little outrage shows the staggering amount of work to be done both in our legal system and among our citizenry.
Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and general counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.
Tom Homan is senior fellow at the Immigration Reform Law Institute. He is the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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