[Ed. Note: Garrison, Ph.D., is president of Counterpoint Institute for policy, research, and education and a policy fellow at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.)

President Joe Biden’s border crisis is routinely promoted by his administration and the leftist media as “an immigration system” that is “humane, orderly, and safe.” But on the U.S.-Mexican border, the harsh truth is that Biden’s “system” has led to booming business for the human and drug traffickers of the Mexican cartels.

In Cochise County, Arizona, rancher Jay Whetten told me in an interview how the Biden administration’s reversal of Trump-era border policies—tantamount to “telling people to come in”—has greatly increased the human and drug smuggling businesses of the cartels.

“The cartels are really, really, making a lot of money today,” said Whetten, who is former president of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association. “They have the northern border of Mexico sealed. Nobody comes through that border illegally without their authorization. It’s a money-making machine for them, and they don’t care about these people.”

John Guerrero, an Arizona border resident, provided intelligence analysis on border security as a former volunteer with the Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement Team of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. A retired U.S. Army Ranger officer, Guerrero has observed a “remarkable shift in the environment on the border” since the Biden administration, marked by the large number of U.S. citizens acting as smugglers to receive the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. through the Huachuca Mountains.

Guerrero described to me in an interview the clandestine nighttime maneuvers at Our Lady of the Sierras Shrine, a transition point for smuggling.

“Before the Biden administration came, we were experiencing a very calming environment,” Guerrero said. “Very few smugglers would go up to the [shrine] parking lot at night, it was very quiet. After the election, we started seeing [multiple] vehicles backing into the parking lots up here to wait [to receive drugs or people].”

He continued:

Anyone providing transportation for the people that come across can easily park their vehicle, go up to the shrine, walk around the Stations of the Cross, and act as if they really belong there. But meanwhile their vehicle is unlocked and can be ‘uploaded’ while they’re walking around. [Then,] people or drugs are already packed up and [ready to] head north once they leave the shrine … and I-10, that’s the end zone.

If they can get there, they’re pretty much free [to go] east or west to larger cities.

Guerrero further commented that many smugglers receiving on the U.S. side are “not of Hispanic origin,” but he is seeing “middle-aged Caucasians” as more U.S. citizens join in the smuggling activity. “This is what we are challenged with,” he said. “Some now see it as a form of patriotic activism sanctioned by our president in his efforts to make the border more open.”

This is corroborated by the public statements of the Santa Cruz county sheriff in a March town hall meeting. And as noted by Guerrero, “These U.S. citizens have been encouraged to become political activists to … be part of the smuggling operation.”

Guerrero added, “But it [also] happens to pay well. That’s a new trend we had not yet seen.”

Stephanie Hubble, a small business owner in Sonoita, Arizona, told me in an interview that the Biden administration has created a huge problem for their communities.

“There’s a lot of money to be made off of illegal immigrants,” Hubble said. “They pay the ‘coyotes’ anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000 per person to come here. The coyote will hire load drivers, like from Phoenix, usually with criminal backgrounds, and pay them $500 to $600 to work for them.”

But under the Biden administration, smugglers apprehended by law enforcement are being routinely released into U.S. communities, providing further incentive and “business protection” for smuggling activity.

In April, the clothing boutique store that Hubble owns was broken into by smugglers who had been recently released from a nearby jail. They stole money and merchandise—a loss her small business, hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, could not afford.

The fact that the community was put in danger by the release of the smugglers from jail is an inescapable conclusion for Hubble. “We’re an hour from [any major city],” she said. “Where are they going to go?”