Renata Kiss, FISM News
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The migrant crisis continues to plague America’s borders, while officials are scrambling to process illegal immigrants. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported on Sept. 22 that migrant encounters for the month of August totaled 232,972. This number surpassed encounters in June and July by roughly 137,000.
“(The CBP’s) operational tempo along the border has increased in response to increased encounters, and we remain squarely focused on our broader security mission and enforcing U.S. immigration laws…The men and women of CBP continue to work, day in and day out, to protect our nation, disrupting the entry of dangerous people and dangerous goods into the country while providing humanitarian care for vulnerable individuals,” Troy A. Miller, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Commissioner, said.
FOX News reported that encounters for FY 2023 have already surpassed FY 2022’s record 2.37 million. With a couple of days left in the fiscal year, 2023 encounters total just a bit over 2.38 million.
While the Biden administration credited a drop in numbers to their post-Title 42 policies in May and June, those numbers didn’t stick around for long. Since then, immigrants have flooded the border and spread throughout the country. Most recently, New York and Chicago called on the federal government to help mitigate their increasingly dire situation.
At the same time, daily border encounters grew from roughly 6,000 in the spring to 9,000 in the fall. The most shocking example happened recently in Eagle Pass, Texas, where 11,000 Venezuelan migrants crossed the Rio Grande River, forcing two bridges to shut down.
FISM News reported that the line of immigrants stretched all the way into Mexico as they waited to be processed. Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced temporary legal protection and work permits for almost half a million Venezuelan migrants, shielding them from deportation.
House Republicans have criticized the administration’s continuing open-border policy, saying that it’s putting the safety of American citizens at risk.
“Cartel business is booming, and it will continue as long as Secretary Mayorkas insists on these radical open-borders policies. No amount of spin can change the fact that the American people are suffering the worst border crisis in our nation’s history,” said House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green.
U.S. crime associated with immigrants possessing a criminal background skyrocketed in 2021. The CBP reported over 10,000 “criminal noncitizen” arrests in that fiscal year. That number has grown to 12,659 for FY 2023. Most of these arrests revolve around DUIs, illegal drug possessions and trafficking, illegal entry and re-entry, and committing violent crimes.
“Secretary Mayorkas’ open-borders policies are actively undermining our homeland security and jeopardizing the safety of every American,” Green said.