Melissa Ford is the policy director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Secure & Sovereign Texas campaign, which strives to keep our nation safe and free. Melissa’s work and expertise is focused on policies that secure the border and restore the rule of law as we fix and improve legal immigration to the United States. Melissa writes about foreign policy, public safety, drug cartels, and organized crime.
The undeclared war against the Mexican criminal cartels went hot again last Monday, when cartel gunmen opened fire on U.S. Border Patrol agents in Fronton, Texas, during an illegal smuggling operation. Mexican cartels, terror organizations by any reasonable definition, now feel so emboldened they are shooting at American law enforcement on U.S. soil. This is precisely...
As Election Day approaches, many of us are closely watching not only the presidential race but also the implications for our border, our security, and our national sovereignty. The Nov. 5 election is intensifying urgency among migrants in Mexico and beyond, who see this as their last chance to reach the U.S. under a “friendly”...
Recently, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, one of the world’s most powerful drug lords and leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, was arrested by U.S. federal agents near El Paso. The Sinaloa cartel is considered one of the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the Western Hemisphere, generating billions of dollars annually by smuggling drugs...
The Mexican national elections held on Sunday, June 2, resulted in a resounding victory for the ruling leftist party, Morena. Claudia Sheinbaum, running under current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s banner, won the presidential contest by a thirty-point margin, and Morena secured a supermajority in both the national and state legislatures. This landslide win grants...
Berta Gisela Gaitan, who was running mayor of the municipality of Celaya in Mexico, was gunned down on Monday at a political rally. Hers was the third such assassination of a political candidate in recent weeks. Her brazen murder indisputably refutes many of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s claims in a recent “60 Minutes”...
On Dec. 28, the White House issued a joint communiqué with Mexico that created some tension when the American version identified “democratic decline” as one of the root causes of heavy and irregular migration flows at the border. When Mexico’s version excluded that phrase, it was immediately removed from the White House statement to align with the...
Amid one of the worst national security, immigration and public safety crises in U.S. history, President Biden’s attempts to smooth over the crisis at the southern border are actually exacerbating the situation. At this point, he is empowering the very authoritarian regimes responsible for orchestrating the flow of refugees and migrants to the U.S. to begin with....
In late July, the U.S. State Department presented a report to Congress which added nearly 40 individuals from El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, including former presidents, judges, and other public figures to this year’s list of “corrupt and undemocratic actors.” Yet strangely enough, our close neighbor, Mexico—which ranks among the top five most corrupt countries globally—remains absent from...
Last week, Chinese organized crime groups were found working with the Mexican cartels in a global money laundering scheme. But while the White House, Beijing and Mexico City continue to trade accusations, officials in Texas — which has the nation’s longest border with Mexico — are taking real steps to address the problem. Chinese involvement in the...
A compelling collection of stories by Jason Buch tells a gripping tale about embezzled money stolen from Mexican taxpayers making its way through a Texas bank and ultimately into extravagant assets such as real estate, cars, and various luxury items. Buch’s investigative reporting begins by delving into the life of Luis Carlos Castillo Cervantes, also...
The former Mexican governor of Tamaulipas and one-time presidential hopeful was sentenced to nine years in prison two weeks ago, after spending millions of dollars in illegal bribes to fraudulently purchase property in the U.S. Tomás Yarrington Ruvalcaba pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and has long been accused of accepting millions in bribes from...
It’s hard to imagine the same barbaric cartel activity that has ravaged Mexico spreading across the border we share, but make no mistake—cartel activity is no longer confined to Mexico. It is present in all of our communities. Drug cartels are ruthless, strategic, highly organized money-making entities that continue to evolve in strength and sophistication....