by Kasey Schefflin-Emrich
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) has offered no concrete plan to deal with the border crisis as Acting Chief Patrol Agent Keith Hoops of the Swanton Sector recently revealed the escalating number of illegal crossings.
“MAJOR INCREASE!!!” Hoops wrote in an Aug. 2 Twitter post. “According to recent data, Swanton Sector’s border encounters have INCREASED over 92% from last year. Our #BorderPatrol Agents have worked tirelessly to keep America safe.”
The Swanton Sector includes counties in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Warnock has a poor voting record on keeping the border safe, according to a National Republican Senatorial Committee press release. He voted according to Biden’s policies that reject reconstruction of the border wall and against a bill that provided funds for anti-narcotic resources for the CBP.
CBP data shows encounters nationwide have reached more than 2 million, which is already higher than the total for last fiscal year, which topped off at 1,956,519 and ended Sep. 30, 2021.
A June report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations says that the Biden administration has removed many of the policies set in motion by the Trump administration, including the migrant protection protocols, asylum cooperative agreements and prompt asylum claim review, which has eased travel restrictions and made Border Patrol’s job more difficult.
The Border Crisis has been characterized as a national security crisis as well as a humanitarian crisis. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, 4.9 million migrants have crossed the border illegally since President Biden took office with 3.4 million coming from the southern border. In July, border patrol agents saw 199,976 illegal migrants cross, which represents a 325% increase since former President Trump left office.
Migrants coming from the southern border are overwhelmingly from Mexico, although CBP data shows an increase in encounters from Central American countries, such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. In August 2020, there were 9,652 encounters with migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala compared 91,925 encounters reported by August 2021.
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Photo “Raphael Warnock” by Raphael Warnock.
