Nowhere is the need for President Trump to shut off asylum requests and build a wall more evident than in the small neighborhoods at the border in the Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas. The Young Republicans of Hidalgo County posted on Facebook a 90-second video last week of a stream of illegal aliens teaming through a residential neighborhood of Los Ebanos, Texas, near the border of Hidalgo and Starr counties.

First, ask yourself if asylum laws and treaties that are all written in singular language were ever meant to apply to masses of people streaming through our neighborhoods. But the more relevant point is that Los Ebanos, like many border towns in Hidalgo and Starr counties, run right up to the Rio Grande River. Unlike in other areas of the border, such as in Arizona, where there is vast desert or ranchland as a buffer between residential neighborhoods and the international border, these streets run right up to the border line.

Yet, these are the very neighborhoods where the local congressmen bragged about blocking the construction of a border wall.

“I worked hard to include language through the appropriations process that would protect communities from an ineffective and divisive border wall. This change order reduces the number of miles from eight to four in Starr County,” Henry Cuellar wrote in a news release in April.

These areas need a border wall more than any other part of the border because smugglers have the ability to get people across the river and into the neighborhoods within minutes, whereas in the desert areas, Border Patrol can interdict them before they come into contact with the population centers.

While having the danger of family units is bad enough, given the desperation of their situation and coming into contact with those potentially carrying contagious diseases, what is particularly concerning are the “runners” or “got aways” who have criminal records and are smuggled in across the river at strategic locations. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost has confirmed that over 100,000 illegal aliens have gotten away from Border Patrol this year, and those numbers are likely a dramatic understatement.

Moreover, we now know from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that up to one quarter of the members of certain caravans had criminal records already inside the United States. Who knows how many have criminal records in their home countries or are prone to criminality once they get here. Yet, they are walking straight into Texas neighborhoods within a minute of crossing the river.

Los Ebanos, the site of this video, is particularly vulnerable because it is enveloped by multiple river bends, providing the cartels with numerous strategic locations to get over the river and hide in communities or get on the highways within minutes.

Hidalgo County on Google maps

Last week, Jaeson Jones, retired Department of Public Safety intel officer and former captain of the Texas Rangers' Border Security Operations Center (BSOC), explained on my show that the bends in the river are the most dangerous smuggling routes where the cartels exploit the lack of a border wall.

“The reason the wall here is so important is because the river is very close to Highway 83, so what the goal of the cartel is to get people, drugs, weapons or money to 83 as quickly as possible,” said Jones, who just gave Sinclair reporter Lara Logan a tour of the area for an upcoming documentary on the border.

“In some places it’s not even 100 yards away. The small community of Los Ebanos lies just west of where the border wall ends in south Texas. It is ground zero for the largest intelligence collection against U.S. law enforcement being conducted by a criminal organization anywhere in the United States.”

The cartels have people on both sides of the river spying on all our law enforcement and military assets with impunity, according to Jones.

“It would stun people to know that not only are they operating two-way handheld encrypted radios, which local law enforcement don’t have in that area, but they are 25 miles into the U.S. and they even sit at the airports and every time our helicopters take off they are on those radios telling the cartels to shut down their operation,” Jones said. “It is stunning the level of criminal activity in that area. It’s mind-boggling the level of tradecraft our law enforcement is up against there. The cártel del Golfo scouts who control both sides of the river were monitoring us when we were doing the filming just last week.”

Jones also noted that this area is “ground zero” for cartels moving special interest aliens who pose a security risk to the United States.

“They have the easiest route moving people in and out. About 48 miles of this 68-mile stretch doesn’t have a wall and there are only 16 agents operating there,” he said.

Jones posted on his Twitter page a video of the rafts coming right across the river.

TRIPWIRES & TRIGGERS–VIDEO-Ten minutes ago, I posted a video of a helicopter supporting two lone BP Agents on the ground. The helicopter just left to refuel and the rafts are back in the water. This is the exact same location & the Cartel is sending more rafts again. pic.twitter.com/k7qyjxH7yt — Jaeson Jones (@jaeson_jones) June 18, 2019

Without anything stopping them, they are in a stash house within minutes. Jones lamented how our government continues to view the border as a domestic immigration issue rather than a “national security issue” requiring more robust use of the military.

“We have no operational control at our border,” he said. “Where is the Department of Defense to help our Border Patrol being overrun by the cartels helping them hold the line?”

Indeed, this week, the Senate is debating the annual defense authorization bill (NDAA). Throughout the debate you will hear endless chatter about the Middle East. One issue that will never come up is our own border – “ground zero for the largest intelligence collection against U.S. law enforcement.”