FederalImmigration & BorderIssuesBorder Guards Arrested Over 1.7 Million in Southwestern U.S. During Fiscal Year 2021, per Report

Title 42 of the United States Code contains the statutes that allow the rapid expulsion of aliens when there is a risk of a communicable disease being spread to the American public.

Highlighting the border crisis’ unique impact on Texas, the newspaper reported that the data showed 549,000 apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley sector and 259,000 encounters in the Del Rio sector in FY 2021. In September alone, there were more than 192,000 southwest border enforcement encounters with illegal aliens, and 1.3 million total encounters since President Biden took office.

The CBP records show that 608,000 Mexican nationals, 309,000 Hondurans, 279,000 Guatemalans, and 96,000 Salvadorans were taken into custody, according to The Post. There was also a category of 367,000 arrests that included Haitians, Venezuelans, Ecuadorans, Cubans, and Brazilians.

The news broke the day after the United States Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Chris Magnus, the Tucson, Arizona, police chief Biden has nominated to be the next head of CBP. Notably, Magnus declined to refer to the illegal immigration disaster as a “crisis.”

Some of the senators who challenged Magnus on his border security positions, such as Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), visited the border earlier this year and publicly condemned Biden for many of the immigration policies he implemented after taking office.

Illegal immigration took center stage in mid-September when 30,000 mostly Haitian illegal aliens crossed into Del Rio, presumably hoping to seek an opportunity to claim asylum or otherwise remain in the United States to live and work.

In an appearance on Fox News last week, Governor Greg Abbott indicated that the border disaster is “escalating into a firing war” as Mexican cartels are shooting at Texas National Guard service members.

CBP has not yet published its official operational update for September, which will contain additional details.

Though the enforcement numbers for October will not be published until next month, it was reported that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas believed that scaling back Title 42 expulsions could result in up to 400,000 illegal crossings.

Among other policy measures, the Biden administration ended construction of the border wall earlier this year and is proceeding with plans to deport illegal aliens more selectively and loosen enforcement against illegal immigration.

The Biden administration reportedly has released an estimated 160,000 illegal aliens since March, making use of a parole program designed to be employed on a case-by-case basis.

The State of Texas has taken numerous actions this year to combat illegal immigration on the state level, such as the deployment of the Texas National Guard and commencing a state border wall project.