Young women and girls are abused on the journey. A young man paid $4000 to a cartel to be sent to a job in California only to be sent to a stash house in Houston for human trafficking. Another story tells the horrifying situation of a Texas rancher who had a very pregnant woman knock on his daughter-in-law’s door. She had been left behind by a smuggler - all she had on her was a t-shirt wrapped around her like a skirt, after having been raped in the brush.
Texans have been killed, migrants have lost their lives, cartels have profited, law enforcement has lost operational control of the border, and Texans are bearing the brunt, financially and otherwise. Texas ranchers are finding more bodies than ever and are often finding themselves taking care of the very migrants cartels are leaving for dead. In just the first 4 months of 2021, authorities in just Brooks County, Texas recovered 22 human remains on ranches that are presumed to be migrants smuggled by coyotes - this is compared to 34 migrants found dead in all of 2020.
Approximately 40% of Border Patrol agents are being pulled off the line to deal with illegal alien families and UACs leaving large areas of the border unsecured and consuming 60-70% of agents’ time and attention. In April, ICE deportations fell to the lowest monthly level on record, and its 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months.
This year’s apprehensions include dangerous criminals and nefarious actors including terrorists, cartel members, gang members, sexual assaulters, and predators. We are also seeing increased drug seizures. CBP numbers show more fentanyl seized in the first four months of 2021 than all of 2020 (6,494 lbs. vs. 4,776). In fact, 800% more fentanyl seizures occurred in the first four months of 2021 than the last four years combined.
Apprehensions
In May, we apprehended over 170,000 people for the 3rd consecutive month, after a record 178,622 apprehensions in April - a record high. To put this in context, one year ago 17,106 apprehensions were made in April –an increase of over 900% year over year.
Encounters
In July, encounters totaled 205,029. Total known gotaways are 37,400, with 1.3 million so far for FY21. That’s the largest number of encounters since 2000, and larger than every full-year total since FY01.