Arizona mayor pleads for help with smuggling chases

() —The mayor of an Arizona town urged lawmakers to address Mexican cartels’ use of social media, recounting several dangerous — and at times fatal — high-speed border pursuits.

Sierra Vista Mayor Clea McCaa II was one of four witnesses to speak Wednesday at a Senate Homeland Security Governmental Operations and Border Management Subcommittee hearing.

Each day, four to five vehicle pursuits involving young people hired by one of the cartels to transport unauthorized migrants north. Those drivers, whose vehicles are referred to as “load cars,” are often young people recruited online, McCaa said.

His testimony came Wednesday as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security prepares to implement a new pursuit policy for Border Patrol that prohibits engaging in chases.

“These low car drivers, who are often teenagers and young adults, are encouraged to drive recklessly through our town to discourage pursuits,” McCaa said.

Since 2022, there have been more than 60 cartel-related busts across the country, with at least 300 people arrested or charged.

In Sierra Vista alone, police responses to vehicle pursuits doubled from 19 in 2020 to 38 in 2022, McCaa said.

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Border Patrol does circumvent some pursuits by inspecting vehicles at border checkpoints, but according to McCaa, those efforts only push smugglers to other areas.

“Checkpoints don’t stop the pursuits,” he said. “They deter them. With the increase of pursuits and the increase in public safety coverage, pursuits have moved to the east.”

Cartels cast a wide net on social media, appealing to Americans looking to make extra money or sometimes tricking them into thinking they’re being hired for legitimate work.

Independent Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema introduced a bill last year that specifically focused on the cartel’s online activity, but it didn’t pass. She later reintroduced the legislation, dubbed the Combatting Cartels on Social Media Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to analyze cartels’ social media use.

The law would also create a way for tech companies to report cartel recruitment efforts in the United States.

McCaa encouraged lawmakers to approve legislation like Sinema’s to block cartels’ online recruitment efforts.

“Recently,” McCaa said, “I have found myself worrying about my family members’ safety in a way I never have before … because load car drivers have no regard for human life.”