Exclusive | Cartel smuggling business is booming despite drop in recorded migrant crossings, rancher on Arizona border says

DOUGLAS, ARIZ. — Tyler Klump’s cattle ranch on the Arizona border is a super highway for illegal crossings from Mexico — and the evidence is everywhere.

On a recent tour of the property, The Post saw discarded water bottles, backpacks, “carpet shoes” — footwear with slip-on pieces of carpet to hide footprints in the sand — and ladders used to scale the border wall.

Recorded migrant crossings in July plummeted to 2020 lows following years of record highs during the Biden-Harris Administration. The Border Patrol apprehended 57,000 migrants who came over illegally last month — down from 250,000 in December.

But the area where Klump’s property is located is known as a “smugglers’s paradise” for cartel operatives, who sneak both drugs and people across the border undetected.

It’s attractive because of the extremely sparse population and hills that let lookouts watch the activity below.

And Klump isn’t seeing any sign of slowdown. In fact, business is booming.

“The foot traffic is as high as it’s ever been,” Klump said.

And he’s got a message for Vice President Kamala Harris — who was tasked with helping to stop the illegally crossings at the border. “Kamala, you’re not helping anything. You’re hurting us,” he said.

“You’re very much putting money in the hands of the cartels and putting money in the hands of a lot of people, but you’re darn sure not helping out your constituents.”

Klump said he’s hoping for a Donald Trump victory come November, adding that he’s grateful for the border wall that was built along his property — but hopes that construction continues, as he pointed to a major gap at the edge of a nearby mountain.

The garbage left behind by smugglers presents a big problem for his ranch because the cows will sometimes eat the trash and can get sick — and even die — from it.

“It directly affects my cattle and my livelihood… It has killed my cattle. I’ve lost a substantial amount of money,” Klump said.

Arizona is a major destination of drug smugglers. Across the border is the territory of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel.

In 2022, 50% of the deadly fentanyl seized in the US was found in the Grand Canyon State.

Just last week, border authorities at Nogales, Arizona seized 4 million fentanyl pills — the largest seizure of the drug in agency history.

What’s worse — the US has opened the floodgates in the border wall. Those openings — along with closed Border Patrol highway vehicle checkpoints further north — allow cartels to move their product across the border with little resistance.

During The Post’s visit, Klump used one of the floodgates to cross into Mexico after spotting some razor wire that had cattle hair stuck in it. He was concerned his cattle escaped through the opening and went to look for wayward animals.

Several of Arizona’s floodgates in the area had been opened for the monsoon season, but remained unpatrolled by any border agents.

While on the Mexican side, Klump found a ladder the smugglers use to help illegal crossers scale the wall, along with more trash they left behind. 

Experts say the drop in migrant crossings in July can be attributed to Mexico enhancing its efforts to expel migrants to its southern border with Guatemala, along with the Biden administration’s new measures to expel those who cross illegally and block them from accessing the asylum system.

The summer heat is also a major factor — as fewer people tend to cross in smaller groups due to the dangerous weather.

However, the Biden administration actions are “too little, too late” in the eyes of border agents who’ve spoken to The Post after the administration already allowed millions of illegal border crossers into the country, in addition to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, each month through parole flights and roughly 1,500 to come through ports of entry each day using the CBP One phone app.

“He’s trying to act tough on the border but we know he’s been the most open border administration ever,” one agent said.

“It’s way too little, too late. Nothing more than virtue signaling,” a second agent said.

“That’s comical,” said another. “Millions are in [the US] now and it’s just now that they realize the number of crossings a day is a problem. The damage is done and now the administration wants to slowly close the valve on the floodgates.”