LUKEVILLE, Ariz. (NewsNation) — NewsNation cameras were rolling when human smugglers led a family through a hole they cut in the southern border wall.
In Lukeville, we watched as one of the three criminal cartels’ SUVs pulled up to the border wall. Once stopped, eight people poured out of the vehicle and were escorted to the wall by smugglers.
The migrants then crossed into the U.S. through a hole cut by the cartel smugglers using power tools. The immigrants said they were from Peru — an older man with the group only had one leg and needed help getting through the breaching point.
Once the family was through, the leader of the smuggling group called our NewsNation crew over to the fence. He had something to say.
The smuggler pulled out his phone and started recording me. When I asked his name, he wouldn’t answer. I asked him if he was a cartel coyote and he said no. Then I asked him how much he was paid to smuggle these migrants across the border but he wouldn’t answer.
Roughly two hours later, the smuggling crew was back. This time, to cut a new hole in the wall. They used an electric saw and drills, even bringing a generator to power the tools.
The plan was to cut the base of the bollard, hitch it to the back of a vehicle and tear it down.
The smugglers were taunting us: blowing kisses and laughing while they continued cutting through the wall. We called Border Patrol and alerted them of the situation. Not long after, an agent arrived.
The agent’s arrival prompted the crew to pack up and retreat.
It’s all a lucrative game to the cartels and they figured out cutting through the border wall is a pretty efficient way to send people into the United States and also tie up Border Patrol in the Tucson Sector —which is currently the busiest sector along the southern border.
Agents told me that border security, which includes combatting the criminal cartels and deterring illegal immigration, is their job — not processing and transporting. Sources said they were advised in muster that the mission is to process as many people as quickly as possible.
Migrant smugglers taunt a NewsNation crew as they cut a hole through the southern border wall. (Credit: NewsNation via Ali Bradley) 
Migrants illegally cross into the U.S. through a hole in the border wall cut by the cartel smugglers. (Credit: NewsNation via Ali Bradley) 
A smuggler records NewsNation’s Ali Bradley as she attempts to interview him through the southern border wall. (Credit: NewsNation via Ali Bradley) 
NewsNation’s Ali Bradley posted up on the U.S. side of the border wall, listening to cartel smugglers in Mexico while they cut a hole through the wall. (Credit: NewsNation via Ali Bradley)
