By Corinne Murdock |
Border Patrol agents are reporting encounters and apprehensions of large groups of hundreds of single adult illegal immigrants from across the globe.
Over the weekend and within a span of three hours, Tucson Sector agents apprehended two groups totaling 303 migrants representing 18 different countries. Most were single adults, and appeared to be males.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens reported the apprehension of seven felons over the weekend. The men involved had criminal pasts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, lewd acts with a child, mayhem or rape and burglary, assault with a weapon, alien smuggling, domestic violence, and possession or intent to deliver drugs.
The Hamas attack on Israel and ongoing conflict may or already has caused further strain on the border crisis. The Daily Caller obtained an internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) memo dated Oct. 20 warning of a potential increase of budding or active terrorists aligned with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or Hezbollah crossing the southern border.
“San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border,” said the memo. “Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the US to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico.”
For the 2023 fiscal year (October 2022 through September) there were over 2 million illegal immigrants encountered at the southern border. That included a 27 percent increase in criminal or wanted illegal immigrants by Border Patrol: over 15,200 this year so far, compared to over 12,000 last year. Of those, nearly 1,000 had outstanding arrest wants or warrants.
That also includes an 18.6 percent increase in criminal or wanted illegal immigrants by the Office of Field Operations (OFO): over 20,100 so far this year, up from nearly 17,000 last year and 6,500 in 2021. This year’s total is nearly double that of the average Trump administration OFO year.
Recidivism has increased from 7 percent in fiscal year 2019 to 26 percent in fiscal year 2020 and 27 percent in fiscal year 2021.
There were also 169 FBI terror watchlist individuals encountered at the southern border for the 2023 fiscal year, nearly doubling last year’s record of 98 and greater than the previous six fiscal years combined.
These numbers are likely a significant undercount. There have been around two million gotaways over the past two years of the Biden administration. Gotaways refer to those detected but not encountered or apprehended.
Owens revealed that there were at least over 18,000 known gotaways in the first 16 days of this fiscal year (2024, which runs from this October through next September).
“These are individuals whose identities & purpose we do not know,” said Owens. “That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol.”
The number of gotaways reached 23,000 as of Monday, per CBP confirmation to Fox News.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
