Border chief reveals they made over 50,000 arrests in just one week and seized over 1400lbs of drugs – Daily Mail
US Border Patrol agents made more than 50,000 arrests in one week - with over 1400lbs of drugs being recovered.
Chief Raul Ortiz shared images of the latest busts on to his Twitter page and laid bare the ongoing crisis at the borders.
On Friday he said: 'Week in review. 1 agent assaulted, 51,560 apprehensions, 16,985 approx gotaways, $31,000 seized, 614lbs cocaine, 540lbs marijuana, 246lbs meth, 54lbs fentanyl, 19lbs heroin, 10 firearms, 17 sex offenders, 5 gang members. Impressive work!'
Images attached by the Chief shows large quantities of drugs that have been bundled together as well a piles of dollar bills.
According to the Chief, these statistics are for the entire border patrol, including the southern, northern and coastal borders.
Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez, who operates agents along the Gulf of Mexico and the border along the Rio Grande also shared an update on their efforts over the weekend.
Taking to Twitter, Agent Chavez said they had dealt with 6,371 encounters, 10 smuggling cases, arrested 11 principals, one sex offender and two gang members as well as one water rescue and had recovered 60lbs of cocaine.
She also said that one agent had been assaulted over the weekend.
Statistics published by the U.S Customs and Border Protection show that in March of this year there was 257,910 nationwide encounters across all borders.
The figures for March brought the total number of encounters in the U.S. to 1,544,087 this year.
Current trends could see the total number of crossings break last years record of 2.76 million.
It comes after the Biden administration said they would be setting up migrant processing centers in Central and South America in an attempt to expedite deportations and further deter illegal immigration to the U.S.
The first centers will be located in Colombia and Guatemala, which are two countries that have developed key choke-points for those attempting to transit through in order to migrate to the U.S.
President Biden has also authorized the Army Reserves to deploy to the southern border as pandemic-era Title 42 is set to expire in two weeks.
Title 42 allowed for the expedited expulsion of migrants from the U.S. in the midst of the public health emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials were able to use this policy in more than 2.7 million instances since March 2020 while processing migrants' asylum claims.
But now that there is no longer a health emergency in the U.S., the policy is set to end on May 11.
Republicans and border policy hawks have been highly critical of the program coming to an end, claiming there is no alternative to make sure the southern border is not overrun and even more overwhelmed once Title 42 expires.
Internal projections show that migration at the southern border could spike by a whopping 10,000 to 13,000 per day when the policy comes to an end next month.
Another method of deterring unlawful crossings after Title 42's end is the Biden administration working to finalize a rule to disqualify migrants from asylum if they did not seek humanitarian protection in a country they had to traverse to get to the U.S. and then entered the country illegally.
Currently, migrants who illegally cross the southern border to claim asylum are many times released into the country to await a decision on their asylum claims.
This has led to millions without legal status disappearing into the country after release from Customs and Border Protection custody.
The administration also announced it is expanding a program that allows migrants to come to the U.S. if they have family members who are citizens or permanent residents.
While the current policy only applies to Haitian and Cuban migrants, the expanded version would also allow for citizens from Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to participate in the family reunification program.
Last month, 3,000 immigrants started trekking through Mexicoas a large group to push towards the U.S southern border.
The asylum-seeking caravan had threatened to block roads or cause self-injuries unless the Mexican government agreed to meetings or supply buses that would transport them to the capital.
They had hopes of reaching Mexico City where they planned to pressure officials to provide them with exit visas that would allow them to continue to the United States.
In February of this year, Border Patrol agentstestified before a government committee that the amount of fentanyl seized at the southern border was enough to kill nearly five times the population of the U.S.