Illegal immigrants cross the Rio Bravo from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, U.S., Feb. 5, 2021.
Since President Joe Biden reversed several tough border policies, the number of people crossing into the U.S. illegally has risen dramatically, with more than 100,000 illegal border crossers apprehended by U.S. border agents in the south in February.
The Border Patrol apprehended 101,535 illegal border crossers at the southern border despite a week of freezing weather in February, according to Jaeson Jones, former captain of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Another 26,000 evaded apprehension, he said.
Jones collected provisional data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from an inside source, which was reviewed by The Epoch Times, and CBP told The Epoch Times that official figures will be released in the coming days.
According to data obtained by Jones, almost three times as many people were arrested in February as in February 2020, when the Border Patrol caught nearly 37,000 people, and nearly 77,000 in 2019, on the eve of a (overloaded) crisis at the southern U.S. border as illegal immigrants continue to press in.
Many of those crossing illegally are unaccompanied minors who cannot be deported if they come from countries other than Mexico. The federal Department of health and Human Services (HHS) has just opened a second placement facility for the burgeoning number of unaccompanied children. According to statistics, about 7,700 minors had been placed in HHS facilities as of Feb. 28.
Biden, when asked by reporters about the border, has said there is no crisis at the border and that “we can handle it.”
Instead of calling it a crisis, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference Tuesday (March 9), “I think it’s important to talk about what the root causes of this problem are and the challenges that we’re trying to address from a policy perspective and the problems that these kids are facing when they cross the border. “
But that same day, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) held a special press conference near the U.S.-Mexico border, where he raised the alarm about the growing illegal immigration crisis after meeting with border officials. He accused Biden’s immigration policy of not only attracting illegal immigrants, but also contributing to the “growing crisis.
Abbott said that since Jan. 1, the Border Patrol has identified more than 800 criminals, including 78 sex offenders and 62 gang members, among those arrested by the agency.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday (March 8) that they are looking for volunteers to assist with the “overwhelming” influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. In an email to employees, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote: “Today, I am activating a volunteer force to support Customs and Border Protection as they face a surge of immigrants at the Southwest border.”
The email has since been obtained by several news outlets.
The number of people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally has steadily increased since October 2020. The number of arrests between October 2020 and January 2021 is 296,259, compared to 164,932 arrests in the same period the previous year, according to CBP data.
Abbott on Saturday (March 6) initiated the deployment of National Guard and other law enforcement officers to the border to combat drug and human smuggling regarding the issue of illegal immigrants crossing into Texas territory.
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