Mexican smugglers attempted to move a group of illegal migrants into the U.S. by using fake FedEx vans, according to U.S. Border Patrol.
The smuggling attempt involved 26 illegal migrants and three vehicles that agents discovered in El Paso, Texas, U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector Chief Anthony Good said Wednesday.
Border agents have experienced a surge in illegal immigration at the southern border in recent years and recorded roughly 1.2 million migrant encounters between October 2022 and April, according to federal statistics.
At least 1.5 million illegal migrants are known to have entered the country without detection under the Biden administration, individuals who are often referred to as “known gotaways,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green said in a statement Wednesday.
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“Based on Border Patrol’s statistics of criminal aliens they DO catch, those gotaways could include as many as 1,180 aliens guilty of DUIs, 285 guilty of sexual assault, and more than three dozen guilty of murder,” Green said.
While the Biden administration is touting a decrease in migrant encounters at the southern border, thousands continue to cross and get released into the country, according to internal Border Patrol data.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Tuesday that illegal migrant encounters have fallen by more than 70% since lifting Title 42, the Trump-era expulsion order used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the internal data show that hundreds of illegal migrants are being released into the country’s interior with court dates each day.
The Biden administration has also expanded its use of CBP One, an app that lets migrants schedule appointments to enter the U.S. via ports of entry, to allow roughly 40,000 entries per month. That’s in addition to the releases of illegal immigrants.
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There is also a program granting humanitarian parole allowing 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to enter the country per month for a period of two years if they have a U.S. sponsor.
The Department of Homeland Security says that illegal encounters at the southern border have averaged 3,400 daily since May 12.
Thursday alone, Border Patrol released 1,147 illegal immigrants, most of whom crossed the southern border, into the country with their court dates, according to the internal data. Agents have been releasing between 1,000-2,000 illegal immigrants per day, a border agent working along the southern border, who requested anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.
“Senior Border Patrol management is too busy patting themselves on the back for keeping sector capacity numbers down at the cost of releasing 1,000-2,000 illegal migrants into the interior of the U.S. each day,” the agent said.
Each day, roughly 4,470 migrants on average are coming illegally and through the CBP One process combined, according to DHS.
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Blas Nuñez-Neto, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy, Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans, testified that the new programs are “working” during a Tuesday House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement hearing.
“We are cognizant, however, that the conditions in the hemisphere that are driving unprecedented movements of people are still present and that the cartels and coyotes will continue to spread disinformation about any potential changes to policies at the border in order to put migrants’ lives at risk for profit. We will remain vigilant and continue to execute our plan, making adjustments where needed,” Nuñez-Neto added.
Despite what the Biden administration is saying, the subcommittee’s Republican chairman, Clay Higgins, said it’s conducting a “shell game” during Tuesday’s hearing.
“Despite what Secretary Mayorkas and other officials at DHS are advising the American public regarding the numbers being down, what we’ve come to observe is rather a shell game in the way numbers are actually documented and reported,” Higgins said.
“The numbers of human beings crossing into America without appropriate documentation are indeed still at the record levels that we saw prior to the end of Title 42, but the classification of those human beings and the way they’re brought into the country has been very cleverly changed by the administration,” Higgins said.
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