US On Track To Hit 1 Million Illegal Immigrant Encounters So Far This Year: Border Patrol
The United States is on track to reach more than 1 million illegal alien encounters so far in the fiscal year 2022, the head of the Border Patrol, Raul Ortiz, said on March 29.
“Probably in the next two or three days we’ll get over a million encounters or apprehensions along the southwest border,” Ortiz said at the Border Security Expo in San Antonio, Texas, Fox News reported.
Signaling that the situation at the border is global in nature, Ortiz said that border agents have encountered illegal aliens from 157 different countries.
In February alone, there were 164,973 encounters - up from 101,099 encounters in 2021 and 36,687 in 2020, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers.
The law enforcement agency has also noted a more than 100 percent month-over-month increase in February in two categories of illegal aliens—family units and unaccompanied minors.
February’s numbers mean that there were 838,685 southwest land border encounters since the fiscal year began in October.
March’s numbers have not yet been released but are already expected to surpass February’s, and take the number of encounters for the fiscal year to over 1 million, within just six months of the fiscal year.
Ortiz noted on Tuesday that the Border Patrol is currently understaffed and is facing further challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-track-hit-1-million-illegal-immigrant-encounters-so-far-year-border-patrol