Armed men escort illegal aliens while crossing the border.

A screencap of the men. Phil Villarreal/ABC 9 KGUN.

A group of armed men were filmed escorting a family of illegal immigrants before they crossed the border. ABC9 KGUN. The US Customs and Border Enforcement agency posted the video on their Twitter account. The heavily armed men escorted a woman and an 8 year old boy to the border fence before they crossed. The illegal aliens were arrested. The area is commonly used to smuggle immigrants and the border patrol credits new technology for detecting the incident. 

#USBP cameras capture armed men escorting Central American mother and son across the U.S./Mexico border in #Arizona @CBP video available here: https://t.co/xyD26HRlVj pic.twitter.com/dvI3c4ddO6

— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) April 23, 2019

My Comment:
Another dangerous incident on the border and a good follow up to yesterdays post about the border. These men were extremely heavily armed. It's hard to tell what guns they had due to the quality of the video but it's clear they were loaded for bear. It looked like they had AK's and body armor as well as quite a bit of gear which likely included other magazines.

It makes sense that the Border officers did not confront these men and simply arrested the illegals after they had entered America. Even if the officers were as well armed as these men they still would have had a ban chance of actually defeating them in a conflict. And yesterday's post about the Mexican Army shows how poorly armed some of these officers and soldiers are.

It also shows how pathetic the border is in some places. This section of the border in Arizona was so poorly defended that a small child could cross it with little help. The wall there is little more than a fence and I think the fence I have at work does a better job at keeping people out.

It's unclear who these men are but if I had to guess they were probably working for the cartels. Coyotes used to be more independent but the cartels have been expanding into other areas for quite some time. Human trafficking is a huge deal for them now and I am guessing that these were cartel members.

I have little doubt that if these were cartel members they could have attacked any border officers, soldiers, or even civilians that were in the area. The cartels are absolutely brutal and rival even ISIS in their depravity. They try to avoid violence in America largely due to fears about bad press and legal and extralegal retaliation but if backed into a corner they could certainly attack.

I think this incident as well as the recent incident where Mexican troops detained Americans means that we should really have much better arms at the border. At a minimum our troops and border protection agents should have rifles. I personally think they should have machine guns and heavier vehicles up to and including APC's.