Vicky Arias, FISM News
According to data published by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), there have been over one million nationwide total migrant encounters so far this fiscal year, a drastic increase from the same time a year ago.
A year-over-year comparison — from fiscal year 2022 through January to fiscal year 2023 through January — shows an increase of 295,019 more migrant encounters, or more than a quarter of a million, at our nation’s borders.
CBP’s fiscal years run from October through September. As of the 2022 fiscal year, October through January, CBP data shows total nationwide border encounters numbered 777, 381. For the same timeframe so far in the fiscal year 2023, there were 1,072,400 total nationwide encounters.
Additionally, according to Fox News, “there have been 328,454 known “gotaways,” [or] illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol agents but have been detected on another form of surveillance.”
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) recently explained that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are aggravating an already difficult situation at the border.
“We are dealing with a crisis down there and the Biden administration is only exacerbating it and making it worse every single day,” Hagemen said in the Fox report.
Sheriff Brad Coe of Kinney County, Texas believes the surge in illegal migrant activity is “a silent invasion of military-age men,” according to a report from Center Square. The report states that the individuals are “between the ages of 17 and 45” and are associated with criminal cartels.
A June 2022 minority report from the U.S Senate Committee of Foreign Relations explained that President Joe Biden’s “immigration and foreign policy priorities exacerbate the [border] crisis and incentivize vulnerable individuals to put themselves at the mercy of violent criminal organizations to illegally migrate to the United States.”
CBP data lists 207 apprehensions of gang-affiliated individuals so far in the 2023 fiscal year. The list includes gang members from the notorious MS-13 gang as well as the 18th Street gang.
The Washington Post reported in 2022 that “authorities say the violent, transnational MS-13 gang has increasingly turned to sex trafficking over the past decade to generate income alongside drug trafficking.”
The 2022 Foreign Relations Committee report, supported by Senators James Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), states that transnational criminal organizations “exploit [our] porous borders, rough terrain, and weak law enforcement throughout the region to advance their criminal agendas at the expense of migrant populations … [and] have infiltrated the United States through these nefarious activities, which gravely threatens the safety and security of our communities.”