By Corinne Murdock |

The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) criticized Border Patrol (BP) Chief Raul Ortiz for presenting a limited set of immigration enforcement data over this past holiday weekend.

The NBPC suggested that Ortiz release the numbers of illegal immigrants who were caught and released, crossed undetected, and escaped. Ortiz only presented the total number of encounters, sex offenders and felons arrested, smuggling events intercepted, and drugs seized.

Now do the numbers of "encounters" that were merely held a few hours and released. Then do the escape numbers. You might want to also mention that huge numbers simply cross "undetected" every day as agents are tied up processing "asylum" claimants. Give the complete picture. https://t.co/qnAWrXpZvq

— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) October 11, 2022

Ortiz issues those types of data sets regularly, and normally doesn’t include the data that NBPC suggested.

Last 48 Hours:

1,171 apprehensions
1 – Arrest for Felony Hit and Run
3 – MS-13 Gang Members Arrested
5 – Sex Offenders
175 lbs. Fentanyl
31 lbs. Meth.
100 lbs. Cocaine
3 – Life Saving Rescues
$72,990 Bulk Cash Smuggling

Outstanding Work!

Honor First! pic.twitter.com/08erFudnuT

— Chief Raul Ortiz (@USBPChief) September 26, 2022

Ortiz has been critical of the Biden administration’s border policies. In late July, Ortiz testified during a deposition of a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that illegal immigrants faced no consequences and were even confident that they would be allowed into the country even if caught.

Ortiz agreed that the current state of the border constitutes a crisis. Throughout the deposition, Ortiz ignored objections from the Biden administration’s counsel, instead choosing to answer questions posed to him by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. 

In late August, NBPC highlighted Ortiz’s refusal to withhold the truth during his deposition. They compared the Biden administration to Barney Fife, a slang term for ineptitude and incompetence. 

We've been saying it for nearly 2 years. The Barney Fife Administration is single-handedly causing the disaster on our border. They're importing millions of fraudulent "asylum" seekers. This mess will take decades to clean up, if it can ever be cleaned up.https://t.co/bzth4Pv4uB

— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) August 30, 2022

Last month, President Joe Biden set the all-time record for illegal immigrant encounters in one presidency: over 2.1 million in one fiscal year, and over 3.6 million since he took office. Former President Trump had about 2.4 million encounters over the span of his four years. With the number of September encounters still pending as of press time, there’s a chance that Biden may match or exceed Trump’s four-year total in just one year. 

If border encounters under Biden continue at the present average rate of over 183,300 a month, there will be over 8.6 million border encounters by the end of his term. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.