The numbers are staggering. In just two months spanning five Texas border sectors, Border Patrol apprehended over 266,000 illegal migrants entering the U.S. Of that figure, 106,561 were seized in the El Paso sector.
El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Peter Jaquez reported the explosion in border crossers for his region.
Biden’s open-border policy has turned a humanitarian crisis into a national security crisis: Border Patrol counts more than 600,000 got-aways this year alone.
— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) December 27, 2022
The figures for El Paso covering October and November represent an overwhelming 260% increase from just last year. The November Southwest Land Border Encounters Report revealed the startling increase in Fiscal Year 2023, which began Oct. 1.
Another 50,000-plus encounters are expected for December.
The numbers, for the record, were released by border authorities on the Friday night before Christmas.
The Del Rio Sector saw 90,482 arrests during October and November, a modest increase of almost 55% compared to the El Paso explosion. Officials say large migrant groups account for the soaring numbers.
Three other sectors, Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, and Big Bend, reported decreases in illegal migrant apprehensions. This, according to Border Patrol officials, is due to border crossers attempting to evade authorities by entering the U.S. in the El Paso and Del Rio sectors.
Del Rio Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens noted that, in less than 24 hours, agents there encountered four large groups totaling over 1,400 migrants. This is now a regular occurrence, and he added that so-called “smaller” groups number “from 1-99.”
President Joe Biden’s border crisis continues to worsen as hundreds of thousands march into the country from origins largely unknown.
How unknown? Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller admitted that “individuals from Mexico and northern Central America accounted for just 30% of unique encounters in November.”
That number plunged from 53% just last year.
The Title 42 victory celebrated by proponents of controlling migration along the southern border may be fleeting. The Trump-era policy permitted to continue temporarily by the U.S. Supreme Court only remains until at least February, and then the dam may break.
Border authorities revealed in the hidden Christmas release that almost 67,000 of the illegal migrants encountered were processed for release under Title 42. Though hardly a solid solution to border control, it at least proved the effectiveness of the policy.
