The U.S. Border Patrol will deploy additional agents to the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas in response to the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
Agents in the sector have seen a massive surge in the numbers of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA) and Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) in the past two months. On Friday, Breitbart Texas reported a 37 percent increase in FMUA apprehensions in October. That same month saw a 19 percent increase in UAC apprehensions. Total border apprehensions increased by 17 percent along the southwestern border between Mexico and the U.S. These statistics were reported by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson Thursday evening.
In response to the surge, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials announced the temporary deployment an additional 150 Border Patrol agents to the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas.
“Illicit networks facilitate the majority of cross-border activity and smugglers prey on migrants by extorting money, confining them in deplorable conditions, and often physically and sexually assaulting them,” Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Marlene Castro wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas Saturday morning. “Despite these risks, migrants continue to entrust their lives each day to these unscrupulous criminals.”
The agents will temporarily be transferred from the Tucson, San Diego, and Del Rio Sectors to the McAllen and Weslaco Centralized Processing Centers. Their duty will be to increase the screening and processing of the unauthorized immigrants with a focus on UACs and FMUAs, she stated.
Earlier this month, Breitbart Texas reported that cartel smugglers were using the U.S. elections as a “marketing tool” to bring more illegal immigrants to the U.S. border. That marketing ploy was apparently successful.
During the month of October, the apprehensions of FMUAs increased by nearly 37 percent over September, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials by Breitbart Texas. Those numbers have been increasing nearly every month leading up to the election since January. October also saw an increase in the apprehensions of UACs by nearly 19 percent. Those numbers also were increasing nearly every month during 2016. Total apprehensions of all illegal aliens crossing the border in October rose by nearly 17 percent.
“In October a total of 46,195 individuals were apprehended between ports of entry on our southwest border, compared with 39,501 in September and 37,048 in August,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a written statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Within these totals, we have seen corresponding increases in the numbers of unaccompanied children and individuals in families apprehended. We’ve also seen increases in the numbers of those who present themselves at ports of entry along the southwest border seeking asylum.”
Johnson said the flood of immigrants has increased the population in detention facilities to about 41,000. This represents an increase of 7,000 to 10,000 people over normal average detentions. “I have authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement to acquire additional detention space for single adults so that those apprehended at the border can be returned to their home countries as soon as possible,” the DHS secretary stated.
“The smugglers learned in 2014 that they could tie up Border Patrol agents as babysitters and keep us from our primary mission of stopping illegal border crossings and drug smuggling,” U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Cabrera told Breitbart Texas in his capacity as president of National Border Patrol Council Local 3307 in an interview on October 26. “When are we going to get back on the border?”
Total apprehensions of all illegal immigrants who crossed the borders outside of designated ports of entry were 46,195. This represents a nearly 17 percent increase over September. Those numbers had also been increasing nearly every month (with the exception of the summer months of June and July). Of the total number in October, nearly half (49 percent) were apprehended in the RGV Sector and 35,210 were apprehended in the six Texas sectors.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.