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illegal immigration

Cartels, UN, and NGOs Fuel U.S. Border Crisis – A Report from Colombia

Published

12 months ago

12 minute read

From the Center for Immigration Studies

By Todd Bensman

A new Center for Immigration Studies video report uncovers one of the world’s most organized human smuggling operations. It operates out of a northwest Colombia village named Capurgana and is controlled by a paramilitary organization called the Gaitanist Self Defense Force of Colombia (a/k/a the Clan del Golfo), which controls the area with an iron fist.

Todd Bensman, the Center’s national security fellow, spent nearly two weeks investigating the human smuggling routes from Colombia to Panama’s Darien Gap. His trip included hours of travel by boat across the Uraba Gulf to a cartel-controlled landing site in Colombia. He also visited a UN run/cartel-controlled staging area, speaking with migrants and NGO staff and even members of the cartel.

The video highlights:

  • Details about the Gaitanista Gulf Clan’s control of the smuggling routes.
  • Information on the migrant population passing through the Darien Gap with the aid of the cartel and the NGOs – over two million migrants from over 150 nations, including hundreds on the terrorist watch list, in recent years.
  • Who makes it all possible? Government officials, banks, NGOs, and the United Nations.
  • Footage of migrants traveling through Colombia’s Capurgana village to the Darien Gap en route to the U.S.
  • An assessment of President Mulino’s Darien Gap closure initiative.

Transcript: Cartels, UN, and NGOs Fuel U.S. Border Crisis

By CIS on October 2, 2024

(0:10) You are seeing the most well-oiled industrialized human smuggling assembly line machine anywhere on the planet. It roars all day and night far beyond American awareness, in and all around this far northwest Colombia village named Capurgana.

(0:34) As far away as it is, this people-moving machine in far northwestern Colombia matters to the American public because it has mainlined nearly two million foreign nationals, like these, the last few years into American cities. But, also ones like these, including hundreds on the US terrorism watch list and criminal aliens among total strangers from 150 nations, like China.

Boatload by boatload. Across the Gulf of Uraba and into the famous Darien Gap migration chokepoint to Panama, and on to the US southern border.

(1:20) They arrive on buses and taxis in towns on one side of the Gulf, and then boat across to towns on the other side and head into the Darien Gap. A flow that carries suspected terrorists, like these Afghans Panama recently discovered and pulled off the trails on its side, or like this Somali terrorist a few years ago, and Chinese nationals and strangers from every nation adversarial to the United States.

(1:49) At issue is that none of this should be happening right now on the Gap’s Colombia side. But the machine is running just as strong today as it was before a new regional deal where Panama and Colombia are supposed to close the Darien Gap for the first time ever.

(2:10) On July 1, 2024, the new president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, with the supposed essential backing of the Biden-Harris White House and Colombia, launched an unprecedented new policy to choke off the Darien Gap, which, with any actual follow-through, would dramatically improve U.S. national and border security.

The plan relied heavily on Colombia’s partnership and a signed American agreement on July 1 to support that closure plan financially and diplomatically.

But, the Center for Immigration Studies went to Colombia to gauge how it was all working out and found, instead of closure on the Colombia side, a stunning reality.

(2:54) A tight-knit partnership between a paramilitary organization called the Gaitanist Self-Defense Force of Colombia – also known as the Clan del Golfo – that with an iron fist rules all that goes on in this region, and the Colombian government, banks, the United Nations, and a wide range of non-governmental migration advocacy groups.

Together, the legitimate and illegitimate run a vast, well-oiled human smuggling machine that pumps humanity to the American border, unimpeded, profitably – and wittingly – for all involved.

(3:34) It all starts with the Gaitanistas, the Clan del Golfo – so named for its control of the Uraba Gulf’s smuggling lanes to the Panamanian border and dozens of towns and villages that line the Gulf of Uraba.

In 2023, top U.S. law enforcement officials, announcing the extradition of a top Clan leader to New York State, described the paramilitary group as the most violent and powerful criminal organization in all of Colombia:

“…To commit brutal acts of violence, terror, and retaliation…to exert control over vast territorial regions of Colombia and its people…The CDC used military tactics and weapons to control the most lucrative cocaine trafficking region within Colombia…Its paramilitary organization’s thousands of soldiers, including sicarios or hitmen as they’re called, murdered, assaulted, kidnapped, tortured, and assassinated….”

(4:41) In Panama recently, the director general of the country’s National Border Service (SENAFRONT) explained to the Center that a major diplomatic push was underway to get Colombia on board with its Darien Gap closure plan, which includes going after the Gaitanista Gulf Clan.

Two months into the Panama shutdown plan, no impact was evident on the Colombia side. In fact, quite the opposite.

(5:08) The Center for Immigration Studies went to look and found the Gulf Clan so proud of its humming machine that it granted access to a clandestine boat dock and one of two camps in Acandi.

“This is a primary staging area for people that are heading into the Darien Gap into Panama. This is the dock, and behind me, you’re seeing immigrants that are actually loading right now as we speak on their way to the trailheads. The trailheads are probably still a good 20 or 30 miles from here. There is a process in place – a very organized process – because so many hundreds of thousands of people have come through here over the past few years to take advantage of Joe Biden’s policy of creating a super highway out of the Darien Gap. Very organized activity. You’ve got their equipment for traveling into the Gap, which has already arrived by an earlier boat. They’ll be matched with their tickets and… Okay, another boat has just come in.

“Just a non-stop assembly line. Very well organized. The town assembly has organized a conveyor belt assembly line, labor force. There’s also police who are overseeing this operation. We’re seeing welcome signs and migrant camps. Very well-oiled.”

(7:03) The Center found marital bliss between the Clan, the Colombian government, and even banks.

(7:20) With permitted access in Acandi, the Center toured a Gulf Clan-controlled migrant camp, though no filming was allowed inside. Operatives control access on the perimeter. So, who was allowed inside?

Colombian banks and Western Union providing money wiring services, nonprofit groups providing food, medicine, and all manner of assistance to immigrants arriving and departing for obvious trips into the nearby Darien Gap.

(8:07) At the Clan-controlled ferry boat docks in Necoclí and Turbo, where migrants board, Colombian federal migration officers check papers and let obvious immigrants board Clan-controlled ferries over to staging areas.

Municipal officials charge a toll tax on each and every migrant before they can board. All worked openly together for the common interest aim of moving mass volumes of totally obvious migrants that everyone involved well knows will illegally breach the next six nations and then the American border.

(8:58) In and around the UN and NGOs, Gulf cartel operatives charge immigrants as much as $300 per head cash for permission to buy a ferry ticket and cross the Gulf … then hundreds more for a guide once they arrive in towns like Capurganá and Acandi.

They tried to charge even me as my taxi entered the ferry boat terminal in Turbo, stopping the taxi, but then looking in through the window and determining that I was no immigrant and letting us through.

(9:51) Much in the way of U.S. national and homeland security is riding on Panama’s plan to close the Darien Gap. The Biden/Harris White House was supposed to help Panama pressure its ally Colombia to shut this down. Promised American money for deportation flights out of Panama hasn’t showed up, forcing Panama to keep its side of the border open still.

(10:15) But the Clan del Golfo, the United Nations, migrant help groups, the Colombian government – and thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants who will all end up living in America – are still on the machine.

All for one and one for all here in northwestern Colombia.

I’m Todd Bensman, Center for Immigration Studies in Colombia.

 

Related:

Panama Tribal Chiefs Swamped by Migrants Slam US, UN, NGOs

Progress Report: Has Panama Closed the Notorious ‘Darien Gap’ Mass Migration Route to the U.S. Border as Promised?

Excerpts from a CIS Conversation with Director General Jorge Gobea, head of Panama’s National Border Service

Panama Border Security Chief Says Many U.S.-Bound Terror Suspects Caught in Darien Gap Region

Biden-Harris open border is destroying an indigenous tribe’s land and way of life

Biden/Harris made empty promises to stop migrants in Panama — but the flood continues

Related Topics:

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Unite the Kingdom Rally: demonstrators take to the streets in historical numbers to demand end to mass migration in the UK

Published on September 16, 2025

By

If you haven’t been following the emergence of controversial UK journalist Tommy Robinson, you should try not to skip ahead to the aerial shot of what is likely the largest rally in modern UK history.

To even begin to understand the scope of the passion and to comprehend the numbers of English people who attended the “Unite the Kingdom Rally” in London on Saturday, some background information will be very helpful.

Like many western nations, Britain has seen an historical influx of immigrants.  With millions of new immigrants competing for housing, medical care, and government resources, very serious issues are bound to arise.  It makes you wonder how a government could or why a government would allow this to happen.

The following video shows very well what has taken place in terms of how many people have arrived in recent years, and who they are.

As the presenter showed, most of these migrants are from non European Union nations.  Many are from Muslim nations.  That means even in a highly multi-cultural nation like the UK, towns and cities are facing the cultural challenges of suddenly hosting a significant minority of young Muslim men.

Enter the most controversial political figure in Britain, Tommy Robinson.  Robinson’s hometown of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, was one of the first communities in the UK to see a significant percentage of Muslim population.  According to Robinson he noticed his childhood schoolyard and lunchrooms were divided into two separate groups, the traditional English (white Europeans, people from India, and the Caribbean, etc) and the Muslims.

As he got older Robinson claims he started to see a number of young girls being ‘recruited’ by older Muslim men into the drug culture, and becoming sexual partners for multiple Muslim men, including prominent members of the community.  When Robinson started to speak out publicly he was hit with a wall of official denials.  He would go on to challenge the authorities for years, becoming a citizen journalist and eventually an enemy of the state. If you watch his documentary series called The Rape of Britain you will understand just what he’s been claiming for about 15 years.

Fast forward to September of 2025.  The streets of many cities in the UK resemble Robinson’s hometown of Luton.  Robinson’s followers have multiplied from hundreds to thousands, to potentially millions.  The situation has caught the attention of President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk. On the weekend, untold thousands of Britons took to the streets of London for Robinson’s “Unite the Kingdom March”, a massive rally for free speech and British identity.

Without watching Robinson’s documentaries and journalism it can be difficult to understand the passion of his presentation from Saturday.  The growing thousands and millions in the UK understand.  Those who do not are very likely swayed by the media and government establishment who are trying desperately and less successfully by the day to brand Robinson as a Far Right racist.

Tommy Robinson appeared to be losing the battle for public opinion until Elon Musk stepped in.  Robinson was in jail last January when Musk took note and used his incredible social media reach to bring Robinson’s struggle to a much wider audience.

The owner of the X platform addressed the crowd via video link. In the days following the public execution of Charlie Kirk, Musk condemned the left as “the party of murder” and accused Britain’s political establishment of weaponizing mass migration to reshape the electorate.

 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was quick to denounce the march while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the vast majority of demonstrators are “good, ordinary decent people” voicing legitimate concerns about mass migration and the safety of British streets.  At least 25 arrests were made Saturday and police say four police officers were seriously injured.

As for Tommy Robinson, he likely over achieved any expectations he had for this rally and now both he and the UK authorities are planning their next moves.

 

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illegal immigration

Biden admin freed illegal alien now accused of decapitating boss

Published on September 16, 2025

By

MXM logo MxM News

Quick Hit:

A Cuban national living in the U.S. illegally was arrested in Dallas for allegedly beheading his boss outside a motel. President Trump called the suspect “evil” and blamed Joe Biden’s administration for releasing him despite a violent criminal record.

Key Details:

  • Police say Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, attacked 52-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah inside and outside the Downtown Suites motel, where both men worked, decapitating him and kicking his head across the parking lot before throwing it in a dumpster.
  • Officers arrested Cobos-Martinez blocks from the scene, drenched in blood and holding the machete. He is charged with capital murder and is being held without bond.
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Cobos-Martinez had been detained at the Bluebonnet Detention Center but was released in January because Cuba refused to take him back.

Diving Deeper:

Dallas police say chaos erupted Wednesday afternoon at the Downtown Suites motel after a dispute between two employees turned into one of the city’s most gruesome crimes in years. According to arrest records, 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez allegedly grabbed a machete and repeatedly hacked at his boss, 52-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, in front of the victim’s wife and son. Surveillance footage shows Cobos-Martinez chasing Nagamallaiah into the motel office, where the family tried to shield him. Police said the attack continued until Nagamallaiah was decapitated.

Witnesses told officers they saw Cobos-Martinez kick the victim’s severed head “like a soccer ball” across the motel parking lot before hurling it into a dumpster. Shocked bystanders called 911, and police officers arrested Cobos-Martinez a short time later. He was found soaked in blood and still clutching the machete, according to an affidavit.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the suspect is a Cuban national who was living in the United States illegally. ICE said Cobos-Martinez had been detained at the Bluebonnet Detention Center but was released on January 13 because Cuba refused to repatriate him. His criminal history includes charges for child sex abuse, aggravated assault, carjacking, and false imprisonment in California and Texas.

Following his arrest, Cobos-Martinez was charged with capital murder and is being held without bond at the Dallas County Jail, court records show.

The brutality of the crime prompted a sharp response from President Trump, who posted a statement on Truth Social late Sunday blasting the Biden administration for allowing Cobos-Martinez into the country despite his record. “This individual was previously arrested for terrible crimes, including child sex abuse, grand theft auto, and false imprisonment, but was released back into our Homeland under incompetent Joe Biden because Cuba did not want such an evil person in their Country,” Trump wrote.

“Rest assured, the time for being soft on these Illegal Immigrant Criminals is OVER under my watch!” Trump added. “This criminal, who we have in custody, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. He will be charged with murder in the first degree!”

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