More than 100 illegal immigrants, mostly unaccompanied children, were recently discovered by border agents in San Miguel and Three Points, near Tucson, the acting chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector said on Monday.
“Large groups of mostly children continue to be exploited by smugglers who leave them at the border for agents to encounter,” he added.
In July, 185 undocumented immigrants, mostly unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, were discovered by border agents at the same location, while earlier, in April, Dikman shared on his Twitter account that Border Patrol agents encountered over 130 illegal aliens that surrendered near San Miguel, Arizona.
“The group consisted of citizens from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Masks were provided and the group was transported to Tucson for processing,” he wrote at the time.
According to data from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released last month, arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border topped 200,000 for a second consecutive month and remain on track to set a new yearly record.
Border agents apprehended 208,887 people in August, a slight dip from July but up more than four times from August 2020 and three times from August 2019, according to the data.
Most of the illegal immigrants caught were single adults, nearly 100,000, while approximately 80,000 people who were arrested were part of a family unit. About 18,500 unaccompanied children were apprehended.
Apprehensions at the southern border spiked after President Joe Biden took office and rolled back a number of his predecessor’s immigration policies. The president faces mounting criticism from both sides of the political aisle over his handling of the influx of illegal crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border.
The latest figures bring the total number of encounters for this fiscal year to 1.54 million. That means the Biden administration could eclipse a fiscal year record, depending on the flow in September. The current record is 1.64 million, set in 2000.
“This is a humanitarian crisis, a public health crisis, it’s a national security crisis, and right now Joe Biden and Kamala Harris aren’t doing a damn thing about it,” Cruz said at a press conference.
