Sheriff James Quattrone is pictured last week at the southern border in Cochise County, Arizona. Quattrone spent several days touring the border between the United States and Mexico. Submitted photo

Sheriff James Quattrone sees a possible link between the situation on the United States’ borders and the increase in Chautauqua County in human trafficking.

“We’ve had several high-profile cases go to court or are in various stages of the justice system,” Quattrone said during a recent discussion with members of the Southern Tier TEA Party. “Anthony Burris, Jasmine Osteen, William Quinones and Augusto Mateo Francisco are some of them.”

Quattrone also explained how these statistics included children.

“Nearly 291,000 children were encountered at the border unaccompanied, many of whom are exploited by cartels or traffickers. According to an Inspector General report in early 2023, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security lost track of over 85,000 unaccompanied children (UACs) in just two years after being unable to contact them in follow-up calls, leading to concerns that they may have been trafficked,” he briefed.

Along with the children at the border, locally, some of the meth and other illegal drugs which find their way to Chautauqua County are transported with some of the illegal immigrants as part of their passage fees.

“Cartels charge up to $15,000 to smuggle migrants across the border. Migrants are often forced to wear wristbands showing cartel affiliation and whether they have paid their smuggler. After successfully entering the U.S., many migrants are exploited and abused by cartel members that force them to work in dangerous low-paying jobs, perform sex work or pay protection money,” said Quattrone. “Some are even forced to transport or help facilitate the movement of drugs, once they’ve entered the United States.”

During the briefing, an audience member asked about the profitability for the cartels who push illegal drugs, human smuggling and human trafficking.

“It’s very lucrative,” said Quattrone. “The cartels made around $13 billion from their human trafficking and smuggling businesses; Cartels are the fifth largest employer in Mexico.”

Quattrone spoke at length about his recent trip to the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas.

The number of arrests for illegally crossing the U.S. southern border with Mexico nudged upward February over the previous month. According to figures from Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol agents made 140,644 arrests of people attempting to enter the country between the legal border crossing points during February. The numbers were still among the lowest of Joe Biden’s presidency.

A flashpoint in the immigration debate recently has been the border near Eagle Pass, which lies in the corridor that’s currently seeing the largest number of migrant crossings. Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas National Guard soldiers who have commandeered a local park and put up razor wire fencing at the river’s edge to keep migrants from crossing illegally. The park has become a Republican symbol of defiance against the federal government.

“Most of the border enforcement -near Eagle Pass- is done by the local Sheriff’s Department, Cochise County,” explained Quattrone. “I visited this border region for a few reasons. For starters, I wanted to gain first-hand knowledge of the crisis; to learn of the local impact on the border; learn how localities are dealing with this issue to learn and partner with law enforcement agencies on the border.”

There are 7,500 miles of international borders, Quattrone said, that include 1,954 along the Mexican border alone; 5,525 along the Canadian boundary lines and 95,000 miles of maritime borderlines. Between 2021 – 2023 more than eight million people entered the U.S. illegally, and in 2023 with approximately 3.2 million encounters more than 1.8 million were got-aways, meaning, undocumented and escaped

“He did his homework, and we’re all the better for it,” said one Tea Party member who wished to remain unidentified.