EXCLUSIVE: Inside Look at Mexico’s Immigration Surveillance Center

As the U.S. continues to deal with record-setting apprehensions at the border, Mexican immigration officials claim to do their part to stop the illegal flow of migrants and human trafficking. In reality, the agency is rife with corruption and bureaucracy that actually protects dirty agents.

One of the key assets and expenses for Mexico’s National Immigration Institute is their state-of-the-art surveillance center that is secretly run out of the 12th floor of their main building on 1832 Homero Street in Mexico City.

With an operational cost of approximately $200 million Pesos ($10 million USD) per year, the surveillance center features several workstations that give agents access to feeds from 3,700 video cameras set up in all of the detention centers nationwide as well as key border points of entry into Mexico.

Breitbart Texas obtained exclusive access in a covert fashion into the center and spoke with several high-ranking INM officials who made troubling claims about the video surveillance center.

Most of the agents assigned to the surveillance center lack proper qualifications and credentials. Friends and relatives of directors are the ones that get selected for the job, said a top INM official who asked that his name not be revealed.

“This job here is a reward,” the INM official said. “Most of the agents here have other jobs, which is not allowed, and when they get here, instead of working they play games or spend their time chatting or messaging friends.”

In some cases, agents fall asleep at their desks or in the break rooms, a second INM official revealed to Breitbart Texas.

“The issue is this, this surveillance system is the eyes and ears of the institute and it is a costly investment for the nation,” the top-level INM official said. “The problem is that most of the time no one is watching.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “Williams Cortez” from Baja California.