by Corinne Murdock | Dec 12, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Illegal immigration may hit another all-time monthly high for the Biden administration. That’s in addition to the current historic record of over 4.1 million encounters, excluding “gotaways.”
Over the last few weeks, Border Patrol (BP) has observed a sharp increase in illegal border crossings in the Tucson Sector. Chief John Modlin highlighted the encounters of “large groups” throughout the week. In all, Modlin documented seven large groups totaling over 1,000 illegal immigrants.
The first week of December, Modlin reported that these large groups accounted for hundreds of migrants at a time.
The week after Thanksgiving, the Tucson Sector reported over 5,700 apprehensions.
The heightened migration surge doesn’t just include those seeking refuge from cartels and oppressive governments. On an almost weekly basis, BP officials document the arrests of illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions.
For fiscal year 2022 (FY2022: Oct. 2021 – Sept. 30 2022), the number of illegal immigrants apprehended with one or more prior criminal convictions swelled to over 12,000.
The last time that the country experienced similar numbers was during the final months of the Obama administration and the first few months of Trump’s administration (over 12,800 in FY16). Throughout Trump’s administration, these numbers dropped steadily by several thousand every year: FY2017, over 8,500; FY18, about 6,700; FY19, over 4,200; FY20, over 2,400.
For FY2021, there were over 10,700 criminal illegal immigrants apprehended. At this trend, there could be around 14,000 criminal illegal immigrants arrested for FY23.
Percentagewise, the most notable increases in criminal conviction types concerned those convicted of homicide or manslaughter.
Despite the continuing surge of illegal immigration, President Joe Biden commented ahead of his first-ever visit to Arizona during his term that the border wasn’t important.
Based on the current average monthly encounters, there will be over 8.8 million illegal immigrants coming into the country by the end of Biden’s term. That’s more encounters than former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, and George Bush’s last two years combined.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 25, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Biden administration closed out its 2022 fiscal year with close to 2.4 million border encounters: the highest ever recorded in one year.
According to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data released last Friday, the administration also made history with its total September encounters: over 227,500. This total doesn’t reflect estimated “gotaways”: those who escape without apprehension.
With this historic influx of illegal immigrants came an unprecedented number of terrorists. Nearly 100 illegal immigrants apprehended were on the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). As Fox reporter Bill Melugin noted, that’s nearly quadruple the number of terrorists caught crossing illegally from the past five years combined.
A key part of the border crisis is the burgeoning fentanyl crisis. Last month alone, CBP seized enough fentanyl to kill over 220,000 people. Their other seizures indicate that Biden’s lax border policy is lucrative for the cartels: over $4.1 million worth of drugs, firearms, and pesticides, as well as over $11 million worth of narcotics.
CBP data reflects the reality that hard drugs overtook marijuana as the preferred substance of smugglers. Last month, CBP reported over 1,800 pounds of fentanyl seized: over 14,100 pounds for the 2022 fiscal year, and close to 21,600 pounds since President Joe Biden took office. That’s well over double of what was seized between January 2019 and December 2020: just under 10,000 pounds.
While fentanyl trafficking skyrocketed, the overall number of drugs seized by weight decreased. From January 2019 to December 2020, CBP seized just under 1.4 million pounds of drugs (most of which was marijuana, meth, cocaine, fentanyl, then heroin, in that order). From January 2020 to present, CBP seized just under 590,000 pounds of drugs (again, most of which were marijuana, meth, cocaine, fentanyl, then heroin, in that order).
Biden named Vice President Kamala Harris the border czar last March, but Harris did little to address the crisis. It took her three months to visit the border after that, visiting El Paso, Texas in late June, although GOP members of Congress criticized that Harris visited a Border Patrol station miles away from the border crisis playing out along the Rio Grande.
According to a Los Angeles Times tracker of Harris’ schedule, analyzed by the New York Post, the vice president didn’t hold an immigration event in nine months as of May.
Last week, Arizona sued the Biden administration after the Department of Interior (DOI) ordered the state to remove shipping containers and razor wire closing up the border wall gaps. The DOI accused Governor Doug Ducey of committing trespass. Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Jacklynn Gould promised that the Biden administration was making headway on closing the border themselves.
“That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission,” stated Gould.
In response, Ducey said that his obligation to Arizonans was greater than to the federal government.
“The safety and security of Arizona and its citizens must not be ignored,” stated Ducey. “Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can. We’re not backing down.”
On Monday, Ducey announced that the state continued adding onto the border wall over the weekend — starting the day the state sued the Biden administration.
“Arizona isn’t afraid of a challenge. We will not back down. We will protect our state,” tweeted Ducey.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 18, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock|
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus, formerly Tucson’s police chief, is reportedly falling asleep during and skipping border-related meetings.
Numerous Biden administration officials working with Magnus revealed this information to Politico. They insisted that Magnus has virtually no grasp of border operations, observing that the commissioner often sends deputies to meetings in his stead.
“Operationally he’s not even in the conversation,” said one official. “He knows the border, but the ins-and-outs and the size and capabilities of CBP is pretty far outside his remit and understanding how to deal with other parts of the administration.”
Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) both supported Magnus in his nomination.
Officials also claimed that Magnus “bad-mouths” other agencies, and distracts CBP from solving the border crisis issue. They shared that Magnus is reportedly more concerned about systemic racism and negative cultures within Border Patrol (BP) than addressing the historic high of illegal crossings.
“He’s not in the game,” stated one anonymous official to Politico. “Every time there’s a meeting and he’s in it, we’ll get to a conclusion and Magnus will have some sidebar issue that he wants to raise and we’re all like ‘What the f**k is that about?’”
Magnus’ reported indifference to the border crisis aligns with his repeated denial of the border crisis and past refusal to enforce immigration law while Tucson’s police chief. It may also be why he was the Biden administration’s pick for commissioner, considering the White House has downplayed the severity of the border crisis continuously.
Last month, Magnus again downplayed the border crisis to NBC News, declaring that the border was in a state of order.
“I think people across the country should know it’s not chaos here [at the border],” said Magnus.
Magnus denied his colleagues’ allegations. He blamed multiple sclerosis for falling asleep, and claimed that he was almost always asking “too many” questions at meetings.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Sep 21, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The federal government’s latest southern border data reveals that President Joe Biden set an all-time record for illegal immigrant encounters: over 2.1 million in one fiscal year. Under Biden, there have been over 3.6 million illegal immigrant encounters. That doesn’t include “gotaways,” which are illegal immigrants either directly or indirectly observed but not apprehended.
In all four years under former President Donald Trump, there were just over 2.4 million border encounters. If the border encounters under Biden continue at this rate — an average of over 183,300 a month — there will be over 8.6 million border encounters.
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) vice president, Art Del Cueto, told “The Conservative Circus” on Monday that the drug cartels, not Biden, are in charge of the border, and that Biden’s inaction makes him, essentially, their friend.
“Everything gets coordinated through them,” said Del Cueto. “[The drug cartels] have a budget, and their best friend is sitting in the White House today.”
Del Cueto explained that the cartel keeps an eye on border gaps and plans human smuggling nearly a decade ahead.
Del Cueto further explained that the asylum process isn’t safe for the American people. He shared that those awarded asylum are only vetted for crimes committed in America, not their home country.
“We don’t know what crimes they’ve committed in their own country,” said Del Cueto.
In response to the latest border data, Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) emphasized again that the border isn’t secure.
The Biden administration claims that the border is secure.
Earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris issued that claim to NBC. “We have a secure border in that that [sic] is a priority for any nation, including ours in our administration,” said Harris. “There are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix, given the deterioration that happened over the last four years. We also have to put in place a law and a plan for a pathway to citizenship.”
However, a group of about 100 illegal immigrants dropped off outside Harris’ Washington, D.C. home last Thursday told Fox News reporters that the consensus among illegal crossers is that there aren’t laws governing the border. The illegal immigrants also acknowledged that they and all the rest of their ilk understand that what they’re doing is illegal.
“Everybody believes that the border is open,” he said. “It is open because we enter. We come in free, no problem. We came illegally, not legally.”
Yet, that same day, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre backed Harris’ claim.
“What we stand by is that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we follow the process that’s been put forth,” said Jean-Pierre. “We agree that the border is secure, but there is still more work to be done.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | Sep 20, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
When Chris Riggs watched news last week about the outcry over immigrants being voluntarily transported to Martha’s Vineyard, he was first shocked. Then he become infuriated at what he says is a clear double standard toward communities dealing with undocumented immigrants who have come into the U.S.
“It just goes to add proof that there are two systems of government in this country – one for the elite and one for everyone else,” Riggs told KFYI’s James T. Harris on Monday, pointing to the “massive disconnect D.C. has with the average American.”
And Riggs should know.
He is the mayor of Gila Bend, the town of 1,900 people along Interstate 8 between Eloy and Yuma which became ground zero in March 2021 for U.S. Border Patrol agents to dump immigrants in the middle of his town to wait for a Greyhound bus, which was often not scheduled to arrive for hours or even not until the next day.
USBP left the migrants to fend for themselves in a town with no shelter, no regular police patrol, and no emergency medical facility. Riggs, his council, and residents did their best to help but with a per capita income of less than $23,000 and no assistance from federal officials their options were limited.
Gila Bend was eventually removed as a USBP dumping ground after Riggs received national media attention about the problems. However, when Riggs learned of all the help offered to residents of upscale Martha’s Vineyard to deal with 50 or so migrants he admits becoming angry.
It also reinforced his concern that Gila Bend may have been purposely sacrificed by federal authorities, as the town has become a magnet for Cartel activity with little being done to stem the problems.
“Every day we see 50, 100, sometimes more pass through Gila Bend and that’s only the ones we see,” Riggs told Harris of the migrants who find their way in his town. “It’s a regular occurrence to have groups of 20 plus pass right around my home. And it’s not just my place. Everyone is seeing the same thing here.”
The continual problem of human smuggling and drug trafficking has led to a sharp uptick of property crimes, according to the mayor.
“No one wants to have things stolen from them, but when they steal from people that have so little it really has an impact,” Riggs said.
He also reported violent crimes have dramatically increased, including drive-by shootings and homicides, which are Cartel related. Riggs has taken to encouraging residents to obtain a firearm and get trained in its use.
“It is up to the individual to provide for their safety and security,” he told Harris, pointing to the town’s limited resources and options for responding to the Cartel.
Riggs believes USBP agents are doing “the very best they can with the resources they have,” while putting the blame for the situation in Gila Bend directly at the feet of President Joe Biden and his supporters.
“This administration couldn’t give two damns what happens to any community that doesn’t affect them or other elites directly,” Riggs said, adding he “wouldn’t be surprised” to find the current situation in Gila Bend is a sort of payback for Riggs being so outspoken.
“But when things aren’t right, you have to speak up,” he told Harris.
