UN report: U.S. southern border world’s ‘deadliest land crossing’

by Will Tubbs

Chris Lange, FISM News

 

A new report from a United Nations organization has named the U.S.-Mexico border the “deadliest land crossing in the world.”

According to the report, issued by the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project, more than 1,200 migrants died while attempting to enter the U.S. in 2021, marking a significant increase from the 854 deaths reported in 2019 and 798 deaths in 2020. Among the deaths reported last year, at least 728 occurred at the U.S.-Mexico border. The report follows the tragic deaths of 53 migrants who were abandoned and left trapped inside a sweltering trailer truck in Texas last month.

“The number of deaths on the United States-Mexico border last year is significantly higher than in any year prior, even before COVID-19,” said report author Edwin Viales. “Yet, this number remains an undercount due to the diverse challenges for data collection.”

According to a Centers for Immigration Studies (CIS) report published last month, the Biden administration had released 1,049,532 illegal migrants into the interior of the U.S., “a population larger than the number of residents in the president’s home state of Delaware,” according to Andrew Arthur, Resident Fellow in Law and Policy for the Center for Immigration Studies who was quoted in the report. Arthur noted that these migrants are “being released [into the U.S.] at a rate of 2,115 per day.”

The IOM report does not include the staggering number of overdose deaths of Americans from deadly drugs – particularly Fentanyl – being smuggled across the border in record numbers.

Border agents seized 150,000 Fentanyl pills at a border checkpoint in California last month, according to a Customs and Border Patrol report. Two suspects faced federal charges in connection with the seizure but were released days later, despite the fact that the amount of Fentanyl allegedly in their possession was enough to kill millions of Americans. Drug overdoses have become the leading cause of death of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

The situation at the Texas border has become so untenable that some counties in the Lone Star state formally declared a border “invasion” this week. While such a statement does not give the counties additional legal authority – it may, in fact, not even be legal – they are hoping to draw attention to the crisis.

“We’re being invaded. The facts are there,” said Kinney County Judge Tully Shahan at a Tuesday press conference in Brackettville, Texas, according to a New York Post report.

“This is real. We want America to know this is real. America doesn’t know what’s happening here,” Shahan continued.

Officials from Kinney, Goliad, Terrell, and Uvalde Counties slammed what they called the Biden Administration’s “open border policy” and described the ways in which their communities have been forced to deal with the massive influx of migrants and drugs on a daily basis.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz echoed their frustration Wednesday with a “by the numbers” tweet, as follows:

“The #BidenBorderCrisis by the numbers:

  • Over 467,000 illegal alien “got-aways,” up 18.3% from last year
  • About 7,000 arrests daily
  • 239,416 encounters in May – the highest number EVER
  • In a single day earlier this month, 1,772 illegal aliens were arrested in Eagle Pass.”

Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was asked about the Biden administration’s handling of the southern border during an ABC News interview Sunday.

“I think that we are doing a good job,” he replied, adding, “We need to do better.”

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