Tag: southern border

Arizonan Sentenced After Being Caught Attempting to Deal Fentanyl

Neil Jones

Steve Lugo Leon, 24, of Phoenix, Arizona, has been sentenced to 70 months in prison after pleading guilty to intending to distribute an illicit substance containing fentanyl, according to a Thursday release from the Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District).

The incident occurred back in 2021 at the Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe. Leon had arranged to sell fentanyl pills and methamphetamine with a client, but when police showed up, the dealer attempted to flee in his vehicle. He also had an accomplice in the car, Rafael Ivan Valenzuela Chairez, 20, of Phoenix; however, in the ensuing chase, Leon hit another vehicle, causing his truck to flip on its side. Chairez attempted to flee on foot, but both dealers were apprehended by police. Officers then found 946 grams of fentanyl, around 9,000 pills, and 12.83 kilograms of methamphetamine.

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Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to Deploy National Guard Troops to Southern Border

Admin

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will deploy National Guard troops to the southern border, his office announced Wednesday.

The Virginia governor will send 100 troops to the Texas-Mexico border to address the surge in illegal immigration and drug smuggling that he says is killing five Virginians each day, according to the announcement. Youngkin joins Florida, Tennessee and Nebraska in helping Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott secure the southern border.

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Agents Applaud Retirement of Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz with End of Title 42 Immigration Restrictions: ‘He’s a Joke’

Admin

Rank-and-file Border Patrol agents welcomed the news that agency Chief Raul Ortiz is retiring, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that his exit was long overdue.

Ortiz announced Tuesday that he will retire from the federal government, effective June 30, according to an internal email first obtained by the DCNF. Border agents believe Ortiz is leaving because of record illegal immigration that has occurred under his watch, as well as his unpopularity among the force and disagreements with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

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Ramaswamy Returns to Iowa, Pushes Importance of Citizenship, American Revival

M.D. Kittle

While Liberal-led LinkedIn may want to silence Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Iowans have welcomed the Ohio businessman with open arms. 

Ramaswamy preached American revival with Iowa voters Saturday morning at the rustic, farmer-themed Machine Shed restaurant in suburban Des Moines, part of a multi-city trip to the Hawkeye State this Memorial Day Weekend.

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Florida National Guard, Law Enforcement Begin Work with Texas Operation Lone Star

The Center Square

Florida National Guard, state troopers, and other personnel are in “full force,” assisting with Gov. Greg Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star (OLS), at the Texas-Mexico border, Gov. Ron DeSantis says.

On May 16, Abbott requested aid from his fellow 49 governors to help secure its border. Within hours, DeSantis announced Florida’s pledge to help. Within a few more hours, 24 governors had pledged their support.

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Chinese, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Haitians, Dominicans Continue to Land Off Florida Coast

The Center Square

While much of the focus has been on the southern border ahead of the public health authority Title 42 ending May 11, Title 42 never applied to those interdicted at sea.

And a new policy implemented April 27 makes Cubans and Haitians attempting to enter illegally by sea indefinitely disqualified from a new Department of Homeland Security parole process.

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Arizona Border Drug Operations Seize over a Ton of Fentanyl in Two Months

Neil Jones

The Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (District) announced Wednesday the results of a multi-agency collaboration under Operations Blue Lotus and Four Horsemen that has resulted in “more than a ton of fentanyl” being confiscated along Arizona’s border between March 6th and May 8th.

“Thanks to the efforts of our partners at the Department of Homeland Security, we prevented substantial amounts of fentanyl and other drugs from reaching Arizona neighborhoods,” said United States Attorney Gary Restaino.

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Commentary: Send Them Back

Admin

Only a country that has lost the will to survive would tolerate the invasion underway all across America. There is no longer a southern border to speak of. From Arizona to Maine, towns are under siege by a relentless, surging mass of humanity. The lowly citizen has been trampled underfoot to make lebensraum for the hallowed “asylum seeker,” whose conquering steps are greeted with suppliant knee. 

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‘These Numbers Are Staggering:’ Chinese Migrants Continue to Surge Across Southern Border

Admin

The influx of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border continued through April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Border Patrol encountered 3,182 migrants from China at the U.S.-Mexico border in April alone, according to CBP data. Chinese migrants often pay hefty smuggling fees to reach the U.S., where they have been found with large sums of U.S. currency, according to Border Patrol agents who recently spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Biden Hits Record Low Approval Rating for Handling of Immigration: Poll

Admin

Americans largely disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration policy, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Monday.

Only 31 percent of Americans approve on the president’s handling of immigration, according to the poll, which was conducted between May 11-15. Under Biden’s leadership, federal authorities have seen record surges in illegal immigration, recording more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 1.4 million at the southern border so far in fiscal year 2023.

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Biden to End Familial DNA Testing at Border, Key Deterrent to Fraud and Child Trafficking

Just the News
Illegal alien Processing center

The Biden administration is set to end familial DNA testing at the US-Mexico border, which has been key to preventing the fraudulent entry of many illegal immigrants and mitigating child trafficking, according to a memo obtained by Just The News.

The DNA testing was originally implemented in the Trump-era and utilized by Customs Border Protection – following a court order related to the separation of migrant children from their families and evidence drug cartels were using children to create fake family units to sneak illegal immigrants across the border.

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Illegal Border Crossings in First Four Months of Year Greater than Populations of Six States

The Center Square

The number of people illegally entering the U.S. solely through the southern border in the first four months of this year is greater than the population of Delaware, the home state of the president, and the populations of five other states.

So far this year, at least 1,047,528, people have been apprehended or reported evading capture, according to data analyzed by The Center Square. The total is greater than the estimated populations of Delaware (1,031,985), South Dakota (923,484), North Dakota (780,588), Alaska (732,294), Vermont (647,156) and Wyoming (583,279).

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Border Authorities Encountered More than 200K Migrants at Southern Border in April: CBP

Just the News

Border authorities encountered 211,401 migrants at the United States’ southern border with Mexico during the month of April, the latest report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection indicated.

That figure marked a 10% surge from the March total of 191,956. Total encounters at ports of entry specifically increased by 12% from March. CBP indicated that an increase from March to April is “typical” and noted that the figures marked an 11% drop from the previous April.

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24 Republican Governors Commit to Help Texas Defend Its Border

The Center Square

Twenty-four Republican governors have responded to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s call for help to secure its border with Mexico.

“The federal government’s response handling the expiration of Title 42 has represented a complete failure of the Biden Administration,” the governors said in a joint statement, referring to the end of the public health authority, Title 42, which expired at midnight on May 11.

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Biden Admin Ropes in Agriculture, Interior Departments to Help Stem Tide of Migrants Crossing Border

Admin

The Biden administration asked several departments and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Interior, to support border authorities ahead of the end of Title 42, the Trump-era migrant expulsion order, on May 11, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In addition to deploying Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense Department (DOD) personnel to the southern border, the Biden administration also requested the deployment of Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Commerce and Department of Interior personnel, according to the Friday memo, which Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Executive Associate Director Katrina Berger sent internally.

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U.S. Officials Admit Losing ‘Operational Control’ of Border, Drug Cartels Poised to Seize it

Just the News

With just two words, the top uniformed officer in the Customs and Border Protection agency sent shockwaves across official Washington two months ago when asked whether his agency has operational control of the southern U.S. border.

“No, sir,” Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told Congress in a shocking admission that exposed just how badly border security has deteriorated under President Joe Biden.

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Migrant Child from Honduras Dies in HHS Custody

Admin

A migrant child died suddenly while in the care of the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), the agency said in a statement Friday.

The Honduran government identified the child as 17-year-old Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza of Honduras, saying he died in a Florida shelter. Between October 2022 and March, Border Patrol agents stationed along the southern border recorded more than 67,000 encounters of unaccompanied migrant children, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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Ahead of Expected Illegal Immigrant Surge, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Urges Bill Allowing States to Finish Border Wall

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) blasted the Biden administration for its ongoing failure in addressing the southwest border crisis, which is about to get a whole lot worse when Title 42 ends later this week.

The Iowa Republican said it’s time to move on her Build It Act, legislation allowing states to finish the border wall by using previously purchased materials.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin: We Have This Moment Where Every State Is a Border State

The Center Square

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, in an exclusive interview with The Center Square, had strong words for the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis at the southern border and the lifting of Title 42.

Youngkin signed an executive order Tuesday while delivering remarks at Stafford High School in Stafford County, marking National Fentanyl Awareness Day. During his speech, the governor blamed the Biden administration for failing to take action against the flow of the deadly drug across the border.

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Biden Admin to Deploy Troops to Southern Border amid Expected Migrant Surge

Admin

The Pentagon is sending a contingent of troops to the southern border to reinforce Customs and Border Protection (CBP) missions ahead of an expected surge in migrant entrances later this month, a U.S. official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Department of Homeland Security requested the Pentagon’s assistance as Title 42, a Trump-era authority implemented in the wake of COVID-19 is scheduled to sunset on May 11, opening the way for thousands of migrants who would formerly be subject to expulsion to seek entry into the U.S. A temporary addition of 1,500 military personnel will mostly perform administrative tasks and will not conduct any law enforcement work, leaving that to CBP, the U.S. officials told the DCNF.

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Nearly 270,000 Apprehensions, Gotaways at Southern Border in March

The Center Square

There were nearly 270,000 apprehensions and gotaways reported of foreign nationals who illegally entered the U.S. at the southern border last month, according to official data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and data The Center Square obtained from a Border Patrol agent.

CBP reported that encounters of illegal foreign nationals processed at ports of entry in all nine southwest Border Patrol sectors in March totaled 191,900, up nearly 23% from 156,138 in February.

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Commentary: Importing Poverty Is Making America Poor

Admin

For much of the post-World War II era, America has been expected by many of its citizens to be a benevolent King Midas to the rest of the world. We have attained unprecedented levels of prosperity, and we are expected to share that with anyone seeking to improve their conditions.

While such philanthropy may cause hearts to swell with good feelings, it often comes at a steep price. At a time when America is showing all the characteristics of an empire in decline, that price has now become a crippling burden.

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Commentary: The Border Isn’t Just a Crisis, It’s Also a Grift

Admin

There was a time not long ago when Americans would read news stories about obscene levels of corruption in other countries and feel justified in a sense of superiority. Things might not be perfect here, but at least we weren’t that bad. No more. We have now reached the point here where it is that bad. We have surrendered the right to look down our noses at any other country.
One of the most glaring examples of this today can be found in the crisis raging at the U.S.-Mexico border. There have been endless videos of hordes of migrants traversing the Rio Grande and walking into the United States, but that is just a part of the total picture.

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Florida Grand Jury Accuses Biden Administration of Abetting ‘Forced Migration, Sale’ of Foreign Kids

Just the News

A Florida grand jury’s five-month probe into the government’s processing of unaccompanied migrant children is poking a major hole into President Joe Biden’s border narrative, concluding his administration has been “facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children.”

In an interim report released by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, the grand jury raised deep concerns about the Homeland Security Department and Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) implementation of the Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) program, saying the government’s rhetoric does not match its performance.

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Nikki Haley Visits Border, Delivers Her ‘Catch and Deport’ Plan to Solve Border Crisis

Admin

by Jennie Taer   Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and 2024 Republican candidate Nikki Haley visited the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, delivering her proposal to solving the illegal immigration crisis. Haley proposed a mandatory E-Verify program for employers to ensure they’re not hiring illegal immigrants, firing 87,000 IRS agents to hire “at least” 25,000 Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, ending taxpayer funding of illegal immigrants and defunding sanctuary cities during a press conference with Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales in Eagle Pass, Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has documented a record surge in illegal immigration at the southern border. “And then the one thing that could make the biggest difference, stop catch and release and go to catch and deport. When you start deporting illegal immigrants, they will stop coming,” Haley said. Federal authorities recorded more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 1 million between October 2022 and February 2023. Haley also said she’d bring back “Remain in Mexico” to force illegal immigrants to await their court dates south of the border and keep Title 42, the Trump-era expulsion order used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. “Why are we doing this? Stop the insanity…

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Caravan of More than 1,000 Migrants Crosses into El Paso Illegally as Chaos Erupts in Mexico

Admin

A caravan of more than 1,000 migrants crossed illegally into El Paso, Texas, Wednesday as chaos erupted in recent days on the Mexican side in Juarez.

Agents apprehended the group, which was mostly comprised of Venezuelans, Wednesday, El Paso Border Patrol Chief Anthony Good said late Thursday. The incident follows chaos in Juarez, where nearly 40 migrants died Monday in a shelter fire.

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Border Authorities Detail Smuggling Routes, Warn of Greater Surge in Chinese Illegally Crossing Into US

Admin

Border authorities in the U.S. are expecting a further increase in the number of Chinese migrants crossing illegally at the southern border, and have identified key ways they are entering the country, according to an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) document exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The document, which was circulated via an internal email to CBP personnel, warns of more Chinese nationals entering the U.S. via the southern border due to a broader message from smugglers about routes into the country. The document details key smuggling routes, and notes that the Chinese nationals are entering in higher numbers due to religious persecution against the Christian faith.

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Commentary: It’s Time to End Mexican Cartels’ Reign of Terror

RealClearWire

Walking down long, ornate hallways, across a grand central courtyard adorned with a Pegasus-topped fountain, and through yet more corridors, our bipartisan delegation was guided to the offices of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for what we hoped would be a timely and useful meeting for our nations. Since the enactment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), ongoing trade issues continue to flare up, and since the beginning of the Biden Administration our southern border with Mexico has deteriorated into a chaotic, dangerous, and lawless morass.

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Illegal Immigrants Turn to Hang Gliders Unlawful Entry to the U.S.

Admin

As more foreign nationals are caught attempting to illegally enter Florida and are repatriated to their country or port of origin, a new method to bypass law enforcement efforts by sea is underway by air: hang gliders.

On Saturday, two Cuban nationals landed at the Key West International Airport using a powered hang glider. They were taken into custody by Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies, who then turned them over to U.S. Border Patrol. No injuries were reported, the sheriff’s office said.

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Biden Admin Flew Migrants Caught Illegally Crossing Over from Canada to the Southern Border, Memo Reveals

Admin

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) flew illegal migrants from the northern border to the southern border to expel them under Title 42, a Trump-era public health expulsion order, according to an internal agency memorandum reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The flights, which are operated by contractor World Atlantic Airlines, also began with a program to move Border Patrol agents from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Canadian border to help with the surge, a U.S. government official familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak, told the DCNF. The Title 42 flights, however, have been costly, with each costing between $150,000 and $200,000, meaning they’re not likely to continue, the source added.

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Smugglers Are Using Drones to Spy on Agents, Border Patrol Says

ADN America

The U.S. Border Patrol said that smugglers are using drones to spy on its agents along the U.S.-Mexico Border between San Diego and Tijuana.

“They’re gathering intelligence, they’re doing counter-surveillance on our agents, they’re trying to see our work patterns, how many agents and what they’re doing,” said Border Patrol Agent Diana Ibarra in a recent bulletin published by the federal agency. “They’re working to try and find any possible vulnerability and exploit those.”

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Border: 205,000 Apprehensions, Gotaways in February as Gotaways Increase in West

The Center Square

More than 205,000 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported as gotaways after illegally entering the southwest border in February, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent. The agent provided the information on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation; it only includes Border Patrol data and excludes Office of Field Operations data.

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Commentary: Americans Should Read the Fine Print on Biden’s Newest Border Enforcement Policy

Admin

If you believe the reporting of the legacy media, the Biden administration’s newly proposed 153-page asylum rule is a resurgence of the Trump administration policies they loathed.

The Washington Post describes the new rule as the administration’s “most restrictive border control measures to date,” and The New York Times claims the new policy “could disqualify most migrants from being able to seek asylum at the southern U.S. border.”

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DEA Arizona Announces Massive Narcotics Seizure after Cartel Targeting Operation

Neil Jones

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of Arizona announced Thursday a massive amount of seized narcotics and incarcerations following a three-year-long targeted investigation of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel (SDC).

“DEA Arizona is laser focused on the Sinaloa Drug Cartel. We will not stop,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Cheri Oz. “This investigation is a testament to our strong partnerships which enable us to gain the necessary advantage over these evil criminal networks.”

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Local Arizona Leaders Detail Reality of Border Crisis at Hearing Democrats Boycotted

Admin

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at the southern border Thursday focused on the effects of the border crisis on a local Arizona community. “The Biden Border Crisis,” marked the second hearing the committee held on the situation at the southern border this Congress. 

“It’s about time we told the truth. It’s about time we fix this problem,” Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., said of the border crisis during an interview with The Daily Signal shortly before the hearing began.  

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Officials Say Biden Manipulating Border Stats, Blinding Agents to Fleeing Aliens

Just the News

Current and former U.S. officials are warning that the Biden administration has begun manipulating border statistics, incentivizing illegal aliens to shift from illegally crossing the southern border to seeking parole and asylum at ports of entry while blinding border agents by restricting their use of surveillance balloons.

Former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show Tuesday that the net effect of the policy changes will be to create a false portrait to the American people that the border crisis has eased when in fact it has simply shifted tactics.

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January Migrant Encounters Hit New Low While Biden Admin Paroles Migrants into U.S.

Admin

Federal authorities encountered a new low of more than 150,000 migrants at the southern border in January while the Biden administration paroles thousands of others into the U.S., according to data U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released Friday.

CBP encountered 156,274 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in January, according to the agency. The new low coincides with a new series of policies the Biden administration began implementing for migrants to enter the country using parole authority.

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Arizona Mayor Says Federal Border Wall Replacing Ducey’s Wall Still Not Built

The Center Square

As the shipping containers serving as a makeshift wall in the Morelos Dam area of the Yuma sector of the border came down, the mayor of Yuma said that the federal government is off to a slow start replacing them.

“There’s some areas that the containers went down and there’s no current plan by the feds to put anything up, but the Morelos Dam area is the area that really was causing a lot of problems in the last couple years, and so that was kind of seen as a priority area,” Mayor Douglas Nicholls told The Center Square Thursday.

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Border Chief: Majority Illegally Entering Tucson Sector Are Single Military Age Men

The Center Square

What’s portrayed on national television about large family groups with small children claiming asylum at the southern border isn’t what’s happening in the Tucson Sector of Arizona, Border Patrol Chief John Modlin testified on Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

“The most notable factor that sets Tucson apart from the rest of the southwest border is the migrant demographic. It is not what you see on the news,” he said.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Appoints State’s First ‘Border Czar’

Admin

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed his state’s first “border czar,” during a news conference in San Benito, Texas, Monday.

Abbott chose Mike Banks for the role, which solely entails combatting the destruction he says the federal government has caused. President Joe Biden has overseen record surges in illegal migration at the southern border, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recording more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022.

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Border Patrol Agents Report More than 300,000 Apprehensions, Gotaways in December Alone

The Center Square

At least 225,797 people were apprehended entering the U.S. illegally nationwide in December, according to official U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released late Friday.

Combining official apprehension data with preliminary Border Patrol reported gotaway data obtained by The Center Square – a record 87,631 in gotaways – December numbers total at least 313,428, another record.

December’s total was greater than November’s record-breaking total of at least 306,069.

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