"We've been seeing more smuggling cases," Cabrera tells me. "A lot more violence going on." Just a few hundred yards from us, beyond a portion of border fencing and a gate atop a 15-foot embankment and the Rio Grande, lies Mexico. Things over in Reynosa have gotten so bad that those seeking to illegally enter the U.S. are often choosing to take longer routes to unlawfully cross in Arizona or elsewhere, according to Cabrera. "Big ol' mess in there right now," he summarizes of the cartels running — and profiting handsomely — off the open border policies of the Biden administration. It's the worst of the worst: Sinaloa, Gulf, Los Zetas. "You can't say the Mexican government is doing its part," Cabrera emphasizes, though it's not like things are being handled as they should on the U.S. side of the border either.
