San Antonio Standard

Republican Texas gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines recently spoke out on the issue of human trafficking in Texas.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, in 2021 more migrants were apprehended at the Southwest U.S. border– in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California– than in any prior year. The total apprehended was 1.65 million, eclipsing the previous record of 1.64 million in 2000.

"Texas has more human trafficking than anywhere else in the nation because failed leaders like Greg Abbott have permitted hostile invaders to flood into our state," Huffines said. "This is a scourge upon our great state and it must be stopped. Greg Abbott’s inaction is placing lives at stake daily, but when I am governor I will finally secure the Texas Border, finish the wall, and aggressively hunt down human traffickers to hold them accountable."

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Valeria Morales told KTSM-TV El Paso that Mexican criminal organizations “are making a lot of money from human smuggling” and “charge between $8,000 and $15,000, depending on the person and where they are coming from.” “They have pick-up drivers in the United States. They recruit the youth to drive. They have stash house coordinators, people that transport these people from the stash houses to their final destination,” Morales said.

New York Post reported that Mexico’s National Search Commission said that more than 95,000 people from the country are missing, many would-be migrants suspected to be victims of violence by the cartels smuggling them into the U.S. “They don’t see these migrants as people. They see them as commodities, like drugs. And if [the trafficked migrants] ‘belong’ to a rival cartel, they’re going to kill them,” said ex-El Paso police officer and cartel expert Robert Almonte, who said some cartels are making $30 million a month in human trafficking.

Border patrol agents in the Laredo area apprehended six stolen vehicles used for human trafficking between Jan. 16 and Jan. 18, according to Texas Border Business. Drivers of all of the vehicles attempted to evade law enforcement, driving off roads and through ranch fences. Agents apprehended a total 23 individuals from four of the six vehicles. Occupants of the other two vehicles managed to escape.

Huffines is the CEO of Huffines Communities, a Dallas/Fort Worth-based real estate development firm. From 2015 to 2019 Huffines served in the Texas Senate, representing the people of Texas' 16th senate district.

Huffines joins a crowded field, along with former Florida Congressman and Texas GOP Chairman Allen West and media personality Chad Prather, challenging Abbott in the Mar. 1 GOP gubernatorial primary, according to Ballotpedia. Former El Paso City Council member and U.S. Congressman Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke leads the Democratic field for nomination to run for governor. O'Rourke previously mounted two unsuccessful campaigns for U.S. Senate and president of the United States. 

Elected in 2014, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is currently serving as the 48th governor of Texas. Before being elected governor, Abbott was the longest-serving attorney general of Texas.