U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that the Southwest Border Patrol encountered more than 100,000 attempted illegal entrants in February. Pictured are illegal immigrants caught arriving at the Southwest border once in 2019.
Border Patrol agents continue to encounter large numbers of illegal border crossers entering South Texas from Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that in February, the number of immigrants crossing the border illegally, both families and unaccompanied children, increased by more than 100 percent from the previous month.
In a statement Wednesday (March 17), U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that from Monday (March 15) to Wednesday, border enforcement officers arrested four large crowds of illegal immigrants. And it was announced earlier that two other large illegal immigrants had illegally crossed the border into the U.S. over the weekend.
On Saturday morning, border enforcement agents received reports of a large group of immigrants crossing the border illegally near Las Lomas and responded with a total of 134 arrests. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said 128 of the illegal immigrants in the group have been identified as members of various families, including citizens from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Hours later, law enforcement was notified that another large group of illegal immigrants had crossed the border near La Grulla, Texas (La Grulla). The 113 illegal aliens crossing the border included foreigners from various families and seven unaccompanied foreign children. While most members of the group were from Central America, 17 were identified as Romanian citizens.
In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, “Even as the COVID-19 (Chinese Communist Virus) Epidemic has spread, human smugglers continue to conduct these activities with impunity and no regard for the fact that it endangers the lives of these individuals and the health of the citizens of our great nation.”
On Monday, border enforcement officers working near Mission, Texas, responded to reports that a large group of illegal immigrants had crossed the Rio Grande River by detaining 110 of them. After they completed screening those individuals, law enforcement received reports that another large group of illegal immigrants was preparing to cross the river into the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed, “Law enforcement responded and, in the same area, again observed several inflatable rafts full of adults and children crossing the river.” He noted that a total of 105 illegal aliens were arrested in the second group, including 35 families and 24 unaccompanied children.
Statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that law enforcement officers arrested 100,441 illegal aliens at the Southwest border in February, a 28 percent increase in the total from January.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned Wednesday that the number of people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally will continue to spike.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Abbott, a Republican, said, “The number of people coming across the border is going to increase dramatically, and that’s just the beginning. That number is going to increase tenfold, if not 100fold, especially given the way the Biden administration has handled this.”
“Remember during the presidential campaign when all the candidates said, ‘We want open borders’? And guess what? Biden is offering these open borders and he’s inviting everybody in. The floodgates are now open, and Texas is at the forefront of that process.” Abbott added.
President Joe Biden promised during his campaign to roll back key Trump-era policies and regulations if he took office, and has been doing so since, including phasing out the “Remain in Mexico” program. The program lets asylum seekers wait for their claims to be heard in Mexico. Biden has also reduced enforcement of deportations of illegal immigrants under Section 42.
Biden Administration officials have refuted claims that their policies have made the border less secure.
“The border is secure, the border is not open,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told members of Congress at Wednesday’s hearing. He also added that single adults and families are still being deported under Section 42, just not unaccompanied children.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at the White House in defense of the Biden administration’s repeal of Trump-era immigration policies, “We’re not going to send a 10-year-old child back Home. That was the policy of the previous administration. That’s not our policy.”
Republicans have repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies.
In a recent interview with Sean Hannity, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the policy shift around immigration – a change from former President Donald Trump’s hard-line approach –is “a disaster in the making” and that “the worst is yet to come.
Graham said, “This unsecured border is a great way for terrorists to get into our country.” He added that unless the Biden administration restores some of the immigration policies of the Trump era, the crisis at the border will only intensify.
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