The majority of illegal crossings at the southern border currently occur from Texas to Arizona and California.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told Fox News that Border Patrol apprehended 32,809 illegal immigrants in the last week of January.
Of those, 23,576, or 71.8%, were in Arizona and California, according to CBP sources. Notably, the numbers for the Del Rio, Texas area, which includes Eagle Pass, fell off a cliff. In December, the sector experienced 3,000 to 4,000 illegal crossings per day. Last week’s average was only around 200.
There are two possible reasons for this change.
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Migrants attempt to cross the border into the United States despite increased security in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on February 1, 2024. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Texas has imposed a lockdown on its side of the border, and Mexico has increased its crackdown on migrants arriving in Mexico’s Coahuila state following Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Mexico in December.
Mexico is now abruptly stopping migrants from boarding trains and removing migrants from its northern border to its southern border in response to the meeting.
And the migrants who do try to cross there now face a very unwelcoming posture from the state of Texas, with large numbers of soldiers, police, razor wire, and threats of arrest. It is unclear what the United States offered Mexico in return for this cooperation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives at the Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on December 27, 2023, in hopes of tackling the surge in migrants. (Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP via Getty Images)
The State Department said Mr. Blinken, along with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and National Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, met with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City and said he was “an unprecedented disaster in the Western Hemisphere.” “We will talk about regulated immigration and identify ways to do it.” Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges, including measures that allow for the reopening of major ports of entry across our shared border. ”
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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador attends a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of State Alejandro Mayorkas, and U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar in Mexico City, December 27, 2023. (Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP via Getty Images)
Blinken “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the Los Angeles Declaration for Immigration and Protection and emphasized the urgent need for legal pathways and additional enforcement actions by partners across the region,” the State Department said in a statement. ” was planned.
However, enforcement efforts by the Mexican government have not been carried out elsewhere on the border, with the Border Patrol’s San Diego and Tucson, Arizona, areas currently the most active. For example, on Wednesday, CBP officials told Fox News that the Border Patrol had apprehended 5,240 illegal immigrants at the southern border. Officials said 3,854 people, or 73.5%, were in Arizona and California that day.
Sources said these numbers do not include CBP ports of entry/CBP One apps or vacations. This number represents only recorded Border Patrol arrests.
Workers set up tents to process asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border fence on January 30, 2024, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. (Qian Weizhong/VCG, via Getty Images)
Border security has been a hot topic in many states and Congress, with Republicans pushing to impeach Mayorkas for making border security deals conditional on aid to Ukraine. President Biden has said he would close the border if given emergency powers as part of the deal, but Republicans say he already has that authority.
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The Biden administration was handed a victory last week by the Supreme Court, which allowed Border Patrol agents to cut the razor wire that Texas installed along the border near Eagle Pass while the lawsuit continued. Ta. This is part of an escalating conflict between the Biden administration and the state of Texas over immigration enforcement. The Texas Department of State Military Affairs took control last month. The city-run Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which has become one of the busiest sites for illegal crossings, was closed to federal agents.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Dakota’s Kristi Noem have offered to send personnel and other support to strengthen Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s security efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border. .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
