U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas apprehended more than 430 illegal immigrants in just five minutes while they attempted to cross the border.
At approximately 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Border Patrol agents working near El Paso apprehended a group of 194 migrants attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a press release from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At 2:50 a.m., agents working near Downtown El Paso encountered a second group consisting of 252 illegal migrants.
In total, border enforcement officials took more than 430 illegal migrants into custody within the first three hours of that day. The two groups comprised mostly of Central American families and unaccompanied children.
“In the last 30 days, the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector is averaging 570 apprehensions a day, with 90 percent of those being in the El Paso Metropolitan Area,” CBP said in a Tuesday statement. “These numbers continue to stretch the resources available to the U.S. Border Patrol to deal with this influx and the challenges that come with it.”
The huge number of apprehensions in the short span of time comes as the U.S. government is expecting March to be a recording-setting month for illegal border crossings on the southern border.
A group of Central American migrants -mostly from Honduras- get over a fence as they try to reach the US-Mexico border near the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on Nov. 25, 2018./ PEDRO PARDO/AFP/Getty Images
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, while giving the annual State of Homeland Security address, said her department is expecting to capture nearly 100,000 migrants by the end of March. This would mark the highest number of apprehensions in over a decade.
“I want to cut through the politics today to tell you loud and clear: There is no ‘manufactured’ crisis at our southern border. There is a real-life humanitarian and security catastrophe,” Nielsen stated Monday during her address. “The situation at our southern border has gone from a crisis, to a national emergency, to a near system-wide meltdown.” (RELATED: Trump Donates $100,000 Of His Salary To Help Fund Immigration Enforcement)
Much like the illegals who were nabbed on Tuesday morning, many of the migrants who try to cross the southern border are Central American or unaccompanied minors. These people are not able to be quickly deported because of trafficking laws, unlike Canadian or Mexican nationals. The situation has left immigration officials stretched thin on resources as migrants flood detainment centers.
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