San Antonio Standard

Indianapolis Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently intercepted 1,207 fake IDs, mostly providing collegiate ages, that were coming from Hong Kong on their way to Chicago and New York. 

My San Antonio reports there were IDs from more than 20 states, including Texas. This drew the attention of Republican gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines.

A recent news release by the CPB about the incident said that three shipments were detained, with one going to a Chicago address and the other two to addresses in New York. They were described as a “game card” worth $20. The first shipment heading to Chicago had 358 counterfeit licenses and the New York-bound packages had 482 and 367 licenses. Some of the licenses have the same picture but use different names.

Huffines had stark words in response to the seizure of these counterfeit licenses.

“There are coordinated efforts throughout the world to invade and undermine the United States,” Huffines said. “Fake IDs are not merely used for young people to buy alcohol. These IDs could be used in welfare or voter fraud, human trafficking, or any number of crimes. Greg Abbott is not taking this crisis seriously. When I am governor, I will recognize this disaster for what it is, an invasion.”

Huffines is CEO of Huffines Communities. He has governmental experience, serving from 2015 to 2019 in the Texas Senate, representing the 16th Senate District. 

The release said that Chicago field operations director, La Fonda D. Sutton-Burke, was concerned about the IDs being used for things like “identity theft, worksite enforcement, critical infrastructure protection, fraud linked to immigration-related crimes such as human smuggling and human trafficking.” She also said there are concerns involving the use of IDs for terrorism to minimize travel screening. 

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent Valeria Morales told KTSM-TV El Paso in an October report 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,” Morales said. “They recruit the youth to drive. They have stash house coordinators, people that transport these people from the stash houses to their final destination.”

The New York Post reported that Mexico’s National Search Commission reports more than 95,000 people from the country are missing, many migrants suspected to be victims of violence by the cartels smuggling them into the U.S. The report added that an expert told reporters that cartels are bringing in more than $30 million a month in human trafficking in the Chihuahua area, where 13 men recently disappeared.

“They don’t see these migrants as people,” ex-El Paso police officer and cartel expert Robert Almonte said to the New York Post. “They see them as commodities, like drugs. And if [the trafficked migrants] ‘belong’ to a rival cartel, they’re going to kill them.”

Abbott is the 48th governor of Texas. Previously he was Texas' longest-serving attorney general. The Republican governor has a crowded field of opponents coming up, including Huffines, who is known for conservative views and criticism of the current leadership.

According to Ballotpedia other candidates challenging Abbott in the March GOP primary include former Florida congressman and Texas GOP Chairman Allen West and media personality Chad Prather. 

Democratic hopefuls former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who has run and lost in campaigns for the U.S. Senate and president.