Lauren C. Moye, FISM News
U.S. border patrol agents have encountered over 2 million migrants at the southwest border in a historic first under the Biden administration’s lax border policies, but those numbers alone don’t reflect the full horror of the border crisis.
The latest Custom and Border Patrol (CBP) monthly operational report shows that in August, agents encountered 203,598 migrants. This is a slight 1.7% increase from July’s 200,195 encounters and marks the sixth month in a row that CBP data shows numbers over 200,000.
The busloads of immigrants sent by GOP governors to Democrat-run sanctuary cities and wealthy areas pales in comparison to the numbers that border counties experience monthly.
“Democrats need to live with the consequences of open borders. 200,000 illegal aliens need to flood the communities of Martha’s Vineyard, Rehoboth Beach, Palo Alto, and Nantucket,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said.
In all, CBP data reveals 2,150,639 migrant encounters at the southwest border, the highest amount ever recorded for the U.S. There’s still one month of data missing in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30.
For comparison, FY22 has over 415,000 more migrant encounters in eleven months than in all of FY21, which showed a total of 1,734,686. This means that there will likely be around a 35% increase between the fiscal years.
In FY20, there were only 458,088 encounters, which was a substantial drop from the year before that. However, even FY19’s 977,509 total is less than half of the numbers the CBP has already reported for this year.
“We have taken unprecedented action over the past year and a half to secure our border and rebuild a safer and orderly process system,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Sept. 15, repeatedly stating that more individuals would be processed or expelled under Title 42 and Title 8 than in another year.
However, these numbers do not reflect the true number of individuals who have crossed this year. An anonymous DHS source told Fox News that known gotaways – individuals who escaped apprehension – are over 500,000 so far for FY22.
Fox’s Bill Melugin has shared the reality of the border crisis in stark terms through videos on his social media accounts. While Democrats cry about how Republicans have dehumanized migrants by moving them out of their states, the border numbers hint at real suffering and danger for these migrants.
On Sept. 16, Melugin showed a large group of migrants walking along a highway after sunrise. Two days ago, he recorded a near-drowning of a boy who attempted to cross the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass.
BREAKING: We just saw a young boy nearly drown while trying to cross the Rio Grande into Eagle Pass, TX. A group tried swimming across, the boy in the blue shirt struggled & went under, began thrashing. Bystander in white shirt on MX side jumped in & saved his life. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/jQkBtabUD5
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 18, 2022
On the same day, he shared aerial footage of an estimated group of 150 migrants once again walking alongside the highway in broad daylight.
As the number of migrant crossings increases, so does the resulting workload for agents who must rescue them. The most recent CBP statistics update shows that there have been 20,464 search and rescue efforts made by agents at the southwest border. In FY21, there were only 12,833.
That’s a 59% increase already, and it doesn’t account for drownings in the river, like the nine who lost their lives earlier this month. A previous FISM report detailed how migrant deaths and drownings are both up under the Biden Administration.
“Biden, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], the DC & NY mayors & their media stooges are all lying hypocrites. What is happening at the border is EVIL & inhuman,” Cruz fired back at Democratic leaders.