Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office has obtained U.S. Border Patrol emails that outline new proposed “bookout targets” for field chiefs and deputies to “bring in-custody numbers to manageable levels.”
According to Moody’s office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Acting Deputy Chief emailed the new targets on Aug. 8, following a field leadership call to discuss “in-custody numbers.”
During the call, CBP leaders revealed that “the rate of daily encounters continues to surpass the daily permanent bookouts and the in-custody numbers continue to rise.”
“Biden and Mayorkas have become so brazen that they are now implementing mass-release quotas for immigrants surging into our country. As a federal judge already recognized, these releases are unlawful, yet the Biden administration is ordering Border Patrol to release even more immigrants into the interior. This latest email is further proof of the disastrous cycle created by Biden’s intentional destruction of our border with Mexico,” said Moody. “Biden cuts resources, opens the border, and then releases detainees while claiming there is not enough detention capacity to prevent the unprecedented flood of migrants entering the country because of his terrible policies.”
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While the email Attorney General Moody obtained from CBP references new “daily bookout targets,” the actual release quotas were redacted for unexplained reasons, according to Moody’s office.
“With every passing day it is becoming more obvious that the border crisis is being intentionally orchestrated by the Biden administration. We will continue to do everything in our power to push back and let the American people know what Biden is doing,” said Moody in a statement.
The CBP is currently detaining nearly 20,000 migrants with agents reporting nearly 6,000 new encounters daily.
According to a United Nations International Organization Of Migration (IOM) report released Tuesday, the U.S.-Mexico border is the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide,
There were 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants on the US-Mexico border in 2022, according to the report. That year also saw the highest level of illegal immigration across the southern border, when federal authorities recorded roughly 2.2 million encounters, according to the Congressional Research Service.
“These alarming figures are a stark reminder of the need for decisive action by States,” Michele Klein Solomon, IOM Regional Director for Regional Director for Central and North America and the Caribbean, said in a statement Tuesday. “Enhancing data collection is crucial. Ultimately, what is needed is for countries to act on the data to ensure safe, regular migration routes are accessible.”
The latest number of migrant deaths at the U.S.-Mexico border accounts for nearly half of the 1,457 migrant deaths and disappearances recorded throughout the Americas in 2022, according to IOM. It was the deadliest year for the Americas as a whole.
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Panama’s Darien Gap, a region where roughly 250,000 migrants traversed in 2022 to reach the U.S., saw 141 migrant deaths in 2022, according to IOM. Migrants also went missing in many cases, with 1 in 25 surveyed individuals crossing the Darien reporting someone they traveled with going missing.
“The fact that we know so little about migrants who disappear in the Americas is a grim reality,” Marcelo Pisani, IOM Regional Director for South America, said in a statement Tuesday. “The impacts on the families left behind to search endlessly for a lost loved one are profound.”
Illegal immigration continues to surge at the U.S.-Mexico border, where federal authorities recorded more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants who crossed illegally between October 2022 and July, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Roughly 340,000 migrants have already crossed through the Darien Jungle in 2023, according to IOM’s report.
Jennie Taer From DCNF Contributed To This Report
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