EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immediately deploy already-procured security equipment and technologies at the southern border in order to mitigate the surge in illegal border crossings and the influx of drug and human smuggling.

In a letter, exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, sent to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, House Committee Homeland Security Ranking Member Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., and Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., led colleagues in expressing concern that the Biden administration is not deploying technologies at the border in order to address the migration crisis.

The lawmakers say that because the Biden administration canceled a series of border barrier contracts, already-procured technologies are being stored in warehouses, costing American taxpayers without any benefit. They site the fact that border agents encountered nearly 235,000 migrants at the southern border in April, while over 17,800 pounds of deadly fentanyl have been seized by agents since the start of fiscal year 2021.

4,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CROSSED BORDER OVER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY SECTOR ALONE

“We are troubled by claims that DHS is not fully deploying innovative ‘smart’ technologies along the border, such as AST towers and fiber optic sensors, that have been procured by the federal government through contracts previously granted for building border barrier infrastructure,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Instead of making use of these innovative technologies to improve security in our southern border, decrease the influx of illegal drugs and human trafficking operations, we have been told the federal government has decided to store them at significant expense while also placing a large burden on contractors, some of whom have been ordered to remain in an indefinite holding process. These contractors continue to incur significant costs while not being able to sell and/or wind down investments.”

The Republicans issued the DHS secretary a list of demands, including a complete accounting of the procured technologies being stored in warehouses, a list of how much of the technology is still operational, and whether there are any proposals to use the equipment by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or any other agencies.

“Failing to mount an adequate response to the upcoming surge in illegal crossings, especially when no contingencies are currently in place to make up for the rescinding of Title 42 policy, presents a major risk to CBP personnel while threatening their important efforts to interdict drug smuggling and illicit human trafficking at our border and its legal points of entry,” the congressmen wrote.

The Biden administration came under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for planning to end the Title 42 public health order, which has been used since March 2020 to expel a majority of migrants at the southern border due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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However, a federal judge on May 20 temporarily blocked the administration from ending Title 42, saying the end of the order would increase border crossings and would also violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), which requires a notice-and-comment period and also bars moves deemed “arbitrary and capricious.”

Mayorkas visited the Rio Grande Valley section of the southern border last month and met with CBP officers, who were concerned that the termination of Title 42 would be catastrophic due to an anticipated migrant surge.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital on the letter.

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Kelly Laco is a politics editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to Kelly.Laco@Fox.com and on Twitter: @kelly_laco.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republicans-demand-mayorkas-utilize-border-security-equipment-technologies-mitigate-illegal-migrant-surge

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The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a U.S. federal court order.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

MEXICO CITY, Jan 5 (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday began returning migrants to the Mexican city of Tijuana in an restart of a Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for U.S. court hearings in Mexico, Mexican authorities and the U.N. migration agency said.

The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a U.S. federal court order. U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-begins-returning-migrants-mexican-border-city-under-rebooted-trump-era-policy-2022-01-05/

The post U.S. begins returning migrants to Mexican border city under rebooted Trump-era policy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Mexico City: The United States on Wednesday began returning migrants to the Mexican city of Tijuana in an restart of a Trump-era program that forces asylum seekers to wait for U.S. court hearings in Mexico, Mexican authorities and the U.N. migration agency said.

The United States and Mexico last month agreed to relaunch the controversial scheme known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), in keeping with a US federal court order.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to reverse many hardline immigration policies put in place by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Biden ended MPP soon after his inauguration in January as he sought to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and in August ordered MPP reinstated.

The program first resumed in December at the international crossing connecting El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez. More than 200 people have been returned to Mexico so far under the relaunch of MPP, according to the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration (OIM).

Two migrants were returned to Tijuana, across from California, on Wednesday with future appointments in U.S. courts, an official with OIM told Reuters.

The migrant rights advocacy group Al Otro Lado told Reuters the two men were Colombian nationals.

Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor Mexico’s immigration agency immediately responded to requests for comment.

The United Nations’ refugee agency and advocacy groups have criticized the restart of the Trump-era policy, warning migrants face the risk of kidnapping, rape, and extortion in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Under the original 2019 program, some 70,000 migrants seeking asylum were forced to wait weeks and sometimes years in Mexico for a U.S. court date instead of being allowed to await their hearings in the United States.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-mexico-relations-us-mexico-border-joe-biden-struggles-with-trump-era-policy-as-us-returns-mexican-migrants-2691625

The post Joe Biden Struggles With Trump-Era Policy As US Returns Mexican Migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

PHOENIX — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been authorized to start cleaning up construction sites and close small gaps in the southern border wall nearly a year after President Joe Biden took office and ordered building to stop.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement this week that wall building projects begun by the Defense Department within the Border Patrol’s sectors in California, Arizona and parts of Texas will be turned over to his agency so any safety and environmental concerns can be addressed.

Work will include installing drainage systems to prevent flooding, erosion control and slope stabilization, construction and improvement of access roads and removal of building materials that will no longer be used.

It was unclear when cleanup and any remediation work will begin.

CBP will also close any small gaps that remain open from prior construction and finish work on incomplete gates, including inoperable storm gates that need to open during the rainy season.

Mayorkas said the the Biden administration is still calling on Congress to cancel any remaining border wall funding left over from former President Donald Trump’s time in office and instead fund technology and other kinds of border security measures it considers more effective.

———

This story has been updated to correct that the name of the agency is U.S. Customs and Border Protection, not U.S. Customs and Border Prevention.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/border-agency-authorized-clean-wall-construction-sites-81899746

The post Border agency authorized to clean up wall construction sites first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“Since October of this year, we’ve been seeing an increase of large gatherings of migrants being dropped off right along in the immediate border and then illegally entering into the U.S.,” said Justin De la Torre, Patrol Agent in Charge for the Border Patrol’s Imperial Beach Station.

De La Torre said smugglers are pushing the migrants into large drains that have been built to help the flow of water from one side of the border to the other.

“Typically, they are entering through storm drains underneath the border fence,” De la Torre said. “Quite frankly, when they bring in large groups at one time, it drains our resources so now our agents are spread thin and it leaves the border a bit more vulnerable in that period of time.”

“Quite frankly, when they bring in large groups at one time, it drains our resources so now our agents are spread thin and it leaves the border a bit more vulnerable in that period of time.” ~~JUSTIN DE LA TORRE, PATROL AGENT IN CHARGE FOR THE BORDER PATROL’S IMPERIAL BEACH STATION

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the large groups of migrants using the drains are mostly from Brazil and Venezuela, and some from Portugal.
One recent group — all Brazilian nationals — numbered 86, and another group had 93 people. Both included men, women and children.

“They’re bringing people through these storm drains, they risk severe injury drowning, falling from steep terrain. Just this year alone, we’ve had 12 fatalities that we know of in this area of migrants being trafficked and smuggled into the area. The Border Patrol’s job is to keep people safe, keep American people safe, our agents safe and to keep the migrants safe as well. … The smugglers, they don’t have that goal; all they care about is making money.”

De la Torre says the gates are kept closed when it’s not raining, but agents must open them when storms arrive as a way to maintain the water’s natural flow from Mexico into the U.S.

“On the runoff systems we have grates and have put in bars to keep people from coming through, however, the smugglers go down there with power tools and cut through those bars and facilitate illegal entry for the migrants.”

According to CBP figures, the number of migrants taken into custody along the southern border has gone down for the third consecutive month since a sharp increase this summer.

CBP is reporting more than 164,000 apprehensions along the entire U.S.-Mexico border in October, which is a 23 percent drop from July.

Source: https://www.borderreport.com/hot-topics/the-border-wall/large-groups-of-migrants-using-drains-under-border-barriers-to-sneak-into-u-s/

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FILE – In this Sept. 18, 2021, file photo Haitian migrants use a dam to cross into the United States from Mexico in Del Rio, Texas. President Joe Biden embraced major progressive policy goals on immigration after he won the Democratic nomination, and he has begun enacting some. But his administration has been forced to confront unusually high numbers of migrants trying to enter the country along the U.S.-Mexico border and the federal response has inflamed both critics and allies. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing bipartisan criticism over its approach to immigration, the Biden administration on Thursday announced new rules that require authorities to only pursue migrants who recently crossed into the country without permission or are deemed to pose a threat to public safety.

The new guidelines replace interim rules issued in February that were initially blocked by a federal judge in August as part of a lawsuit brought by Texas and Louisiana. They break from a more aggressive approach to immigration enforcement under former President Donald Trump, who early in his presidency directed authorities to apprehend anyone who was illegally in the country.

The release comes as President Joe Biden has come under fire from allies for his reliance on a Trump-era public health authority to rapidly expel migrants encountered on the U.S.-Mexico border while also facing Republican criticism that he hasn’t done enough to counter a sharp increase in migrants seeking to enter the country.

The Biden administration has expelled about 5,000 Haitians who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at Del Rio, Texas, in recent weeks. A federal appeals court in Washington on Thursday cleared the administration to continue expelling families under the public-health authority known as Title 42. The appeals court put on hold a lower court order barring the expulsions of families hours before the ban was to take effect.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the new policy was based on the reality that the U.S. can’t go after all people in the country without legal status and shouldn’t try because many “have been contributing members of our communities for years.”

Authorities will be directed to focus on noncitizens who have crossed recently, defined as after Nov. 1, 2020, or who determined to be a threat because of national security or “serious criminal activity.” Homeland Security includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.

Unlike the interim rules, the criminal activity is not limited to the category known in legal terms as an aggravated felony but will depend on the “totality of the facts and circumstances,” Mayorkas said. Anyone would be considered a priority if they are engaged or even suspected of terrorism or espionage, according to the memo. The new rules take effect Nov. 29.

Immigration authorities would be prohibited from arresting and seeking to deport someone in retaliation for exercising First Amendment rights, such as joining a protest or taking part in union activities.

“We are requiring and frankly empowering our workforce, critically empowering our workforce, to exercise their judgment, their law enforcement judgment,” the secretary said.

Advocates for strict immigration enforcement have criticized the interim guidelines, which were similar in intent as the newly released rules, because they were seen as a top-down approach and one that precluded low-level arrests that might yield investigative leads into bigger cases or help serve as a deterrent to illegal immigration.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said on Twitter that Biden has “welcomed” the migrants who have crossed and would now promise those already in the country that “they may stay in the U.S. without repercussions” with the new rules.

Immigrant advocates, including some who have in the past called for eliminating ICE and immigrant detention altogether, welcomed limits on enforcement but are wary given the rapid detention and expulsion of thousands of Haitians at Del Rio.

“This policy is only going to be as good as the results,” said Jacinta Gonzalez, senior campaign organizer of Mijente. “If detention numbers continue to rise, as deportations continue to happen, if we still see human rights abuses at the border, this policy won’t mean anything.”

A federal judge in Texas blocked the interim rules in August, ruling that the administration did not have discretion to choose which migrants to detain, but a federal appeals court allowed the guidelines to take effect while the lawsuit proceeds.

Mayorkas said it makes little sense to pursue all of the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal status, even if the U.S. had the law enforcement capacity to do so.

“They contribute to the well-being of our country and justice requires that we exercise our discretion accordingly,” he said. “The fact that an individual is a removeable non-citizen should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”

Trump’s administration took hundreds of measures to restrict both legal and illegal immigration, including a zero-tolerance policy on border crossings that resulted in the forcible separation of thousands of families and requiring asylum seekers to await the processing of their cases in Mexico.

In the end, total deportations were higher under the first term of President Barack Obama, who enacted enforcement priorities similar to Biden’s, than under Trump. That was due in part to a lack of cooperation from many cities and states whose leaders opposed Trump’s immigration policies.

__

Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Source:  https://apnews.com/article/immigration-donald-trump-joe-biden-mexico-arrests-af64610730b9c603b592101e4a7ddfa8

The post New Biden rules would limit arrest, deportation of migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

DEL RIO, Texas — A U.S. official says the Biden administration is planning “massive movements” of Haitian migrants in a small Texas border town on flights to Haiti starting Sunday.

Plans have yet to be finalized, but officials are considering five to eight flights a day. San Antonio, the nearest major city, maybe one of the departure cities. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The flights represent a swift and dramatic response to thousands of Haitian migrants who have assembled under or around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.

The U.S. has been expelling many Central Americans to Mexico under pandemic-related authority that denies migrants an opportunity to claim asylum. But Mexican authorities will not accept Haitians and other nationalities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it has closed vehicle and pedestrian traffic in both directions on the Del Rio bridge.

Thousands of Haitian migrants had assembled under and around the bridge in the small Texas border town as chaos unfolded Friday and presented the Biden administration with a new challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching the U.S. soil.

Haitians crossed the Rio Grande freely and in a steady stream, going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico through knee-deep water with some parents carrying small children on their shoulders. Unable to buy supplies in the U.S., they returned briefly to Mexico for food and cardboard to settle, temporarily at least, under or near the bridge in Del Rio, a city of 35,000 that has been severely strained by migrant flows in recent months.

Migrants pitched tents and built makeshift shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothes in the river.

The vast majority of the estimated 12,000 migrants at the bridge on Friday were Haitian, said Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens, who is the county’s top elected official and whose jurisdiction includes Del Rio. Some families have been under the bridge for as long as six days.

Trash piles were 10 feet (3.1 meters) wide and at least two women have given birth, including one who tested positive for COVID-19 after being taken to a hospital, Owens said.

Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many of them having left the Caribbean nation after a devastating earthquake in 2010. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus, and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.

It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border, including in Tijuana, across from San Diego, to wait while deciding whether to attempt to enter the United States.

The Federal Aviation Administration, acting on a Border Patrol request, restricted drone flights around the bridge until Sept. 30, generally barring operations at or below 1,000 feet (305 meters) unless for security or law enforcement purposes.

Some Haitians at the camp have lived in Mexican cities on the U.S. border for some time, moving often between them, while others arrived recently after being stuck near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, said Nicole Phillips, the legal director for advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance. A sense of desperation spread after the Biden administration ended its practice of admitting asylum-seeking migrants daily who were deemed especially vulnerable.

“People are panicking on how they seek refuge,” Phillips said.

Edgar Rodríguez, the lawyer for the Casa del Migrante migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, north of Del Rio, noticed an increase of Haitians in the area two or three weeks ago and believes that misinformation may have played a part. Migrants often make decisions on false rumors that policies are about to change and that enforcement policies vary by city.

U.S. authorities are being severely tested after President Joe Biden quickly dismantled Trump administration policies that Biden considered cruel or inhumane, most notably one requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings. Such migrants have been exposed to extreme violence in Mexico and faced extraordinary difficulty in finding attorneys.

The U.S. Supreme Court last month let stand a judge’s order to reinstate the policy, though Mexico must agree to its terms. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that discussions with the Mexican government were ongoing.

A pandemic-related order to immediately expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum that was introduced in March 2020 remains in effect, but unaccompanied children and many families have been exempt. During his first month in office, Biden chose to exempt children traveling alone on humanitarian grounds.

The U.S. government has been unable to expel many Central American families because Mexican authorities have largely refused to accept them in the state of Tamaulipas, which is across from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. On Thursday, a federal judge in Washington blocked the administration from applying Title 42, as the pandemic-related authority is known, to any families.

Mexico has agreed to take expelled families only from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, creating an opening for Haitians and other nationalities because the U.S. lacks the resources to detain and quickly expel them on flights to their homelands.

In August, U.S. authorities stopped migrants nearly 209,000 times at the border, which was close to a 20-year high even though many of the stops involved repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for being expelled under Title 42 authority.

People crossing in families were stopped 86,487 times in August, but fewer than one out of every five of those encounters resulted in expulsion under Title 42. The rest were processed under immigration laws, which typically means they were released with a court date or a notice to report to immigration authorities.

U.S. authorities stopped Haitians 7,580 times in August, a figure that has increased every month since August 2020, when they stopped only 55. There have also been major increases of Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, and other nationalities outside the traditional sending countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Immigration judges have decided more than 32,000 cases of Haitians seeking asylum since 2001, rejecting the petitions about 80% of the time, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/17/1038482663/u-s-plans-to-deport-massive-number-of-haitians-from-del-rio-texas-an-official-sa

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Migrants crossed the Rio Grande between Texas and Mexico with supplies Thursday as they prepared to spend the night under the international bridge connecting Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Tribune

DEL RIO — Five days after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated by a group of foreign mercenaries on July 7, 29-year-old Stelin Jean decided to flee the country with his wife and two children — traveling to Bolivia, where many Haitians have arrived recently before starting an arduous overland trek to the United States.

The family was in Panama last month when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, destroying thousands of homes and killing more than 2,000 people. Jean said some of his family members were injured in the earthquake, which only increased their sense of urgency to make it to the United States.

“There are people killing each other in Haiti, there’s just no justice,” said Jean, who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday afternoon after a two-month trek through the jungles of South America and then crossed the Rio Grande at Del Rio to claim asylum. “I just want to live a calm life without any problems, I want to live somewhere where I know there’s justice.”

The family has joined an estimated 12,000 migrants who in recent days have arrived at the border and are now waiting under the Del Rio international bridge, about 150 miles west of San Antonio, to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Most are from Haiti and are seeking asylum in the U.S.

On Friday, Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano declared a local state of disaster and said the city is closing the toll booths on the international bridge connecting the city to Ciudad Acuña to halt traffic across the bridge, as a security measure.

The city later released a statement that said “international traffic will continue as normal” and people could be seen going back and forth on the bridge Friday evening. But late Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that the port of entry would temporarily shutter.

“This temporary closure and shift is necessary in order for CBP to respond to urgent safety and security needs presented by an influx of migrants into Del Rio and is effective immediately,” the agency said in a statement. “It will advance and protect national interests and help ensure the safety of the traveling public, commercial traffic, and CBP employees and facilities.”

Traffic that normally uses border bridges into Del Rio will be directed 57 miles east to Eagle Pass, federal officials said. They did not indicate how long the Del Rio closures would last.

Lozano said earlier he had requested assistance from the state to help deter more migrants from entering the city. He said the city expects an additional 8,000 migrants to arrive in the coming days.

The sheer numbers arriving so quickly in Del Rio, a city of about 35,000 residents, has local officials worrying about how to feed and house thousands of migrants who for now are being forced to wait in the shade of the bridge.

“Dire circumstances require dire responses,” Lozano said. “There are people having babies down there [under the bridge], there are people collapsing out of the heat. They’re pretty aggressive, rightly so — they’ve been in the heat day after day after day.”

At an appearance in Fort Worth on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott said the U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security have told the state that the migrants will be relocated to Arizona, California, and perhaps Laredo. “But one thing that we know for a fact and that is, there’s nothing but uncertainty and indecision by the Biden administration about exactly what they’re going to do,” Abbott said.

Many of the migrants in Del Rio said they began their journey years ago, fleeing Haiti after previous disasters such as the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Junior Pacheco, 38, said he left Haiti for Chile, where he lived for five years before he made his way to the Texas-Mexico border in August. He said that after arriving in Mexico, police asked for his passport as he was exiting a charter bus and never returned it.

“There’s a lot of abuse on the way here. From people to the police, they steal our money, our passports. There are some people who get stranded on the way,” he said in a phone interview from Ciudad Acuña, where he was buying food, water, and a tent so his family could have somewhere to sleep.

Migrants cross the Rio Grande between the United States and Mexico in Ciudad Acuña, across the border from Del Rio. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for the Texas Tribune

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Asylum-seeking migrant families rest at the riverbank as they wait to be escorted by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande in Roma on July 9. Credit: REUTERS/Go Nakamura

Federal officials have logged more than 1.1 million apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year, after another busy month in June, Customs and Border Protection said in a news release Friday.

Many who were taken into custody have attempted to cross the border more than once, officials said.

Apprehensions last reached the 1-million milestone in 2006. But far fewer attempted to cross that year during the searing-hot summer months, when the journey across the Rio Grande or vast ranches is especially dangerous. Approximately 68,000 migrants were taken into custody in June 2006 — compared to 188,829 apprehensions last month, which was a 5% increase from May.

“We are in the hottest part of the summer, and we are seeing a high number of distress calls to CBP from migrants abandoned in treacherous terrain by smugglers with no regard for human life,” said Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “Although CBP does everything it can to locate and rescue individuals who are lost or distressed, the bottom line is this: the terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are unforgiving.”

The government’s tally of individual people stopped at the border, as opposed to total apprehensions, shows 455,000 people taken into custody so far this fiscal year, compared to nearly 490,000 at this time in 2019.

Border apprehensions have risen every month since President Biden took office, presenting political and logistical concerns for the new administration as Democrats seek to pass legislation that would allow the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States to apply for citizenship.

Republicans have expressed frustration with the increased border crossings, while Democrats say migrants are fleeing turmoil and poverty in their homelands and should be allowed to seek asylum.

CBP said this year’s numbers “somewhat overstate” the actual crossings because so many have been expelled into Mexico under a public-health order the Trump administration put in place during the coronavirus pandemic, only to try to enter again.

The Biden administration has kept that public-health order in place, though Biden has exempted unaccompanied minors and increasingly, migrant families.

Thirty-four percent of those caught crossing the border illegally in June had tried to enter the United States at least once before in the last year, officials said. In fiscal years 2014 to 2019, repeat attempts were much lower, averaging about 14%.

Single adults are the largest group of those attempting to cross, though their numbers dipped 3% in June, and most were expelled. Apprehensions of unaccompanied minors and migrant families — groups that provoked a border crisis in fiscal 2019 — increased in June, the agency said.

Apprehensions of unaccompanied children rose to 15,253 in June, an 8% increase over May. The number of migrant families taken into custody at the border jumped 25%, to 55,805, still “well below” the peak of 88,587 in May 2019, officials said.

Approximately 14% of families were expelled in June, down from 20% in May.

“By any measure, we have the worst crisis at our southern border than we’ve had in at least two decades,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said Thursday at a confirmation hearing for Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, who Biden has nominated to direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which detains and deports immigrants after they enter the United States. “The numbers are overwhelming.”

A Washington Post/ ABC poll found that 33% of Americans approve of how Biden is handling the border influx, while a slim majority (51%) disapprove, including 90% of Republicans.

Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/16/us-mexico-border-apprehensions-how-many/

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