U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has blamed Biden Administration policies for an assault at the southern border on U.S. Border Patrol, which itself is reporting a crisis involving thousands of unauthorized immigrants including those on the FBI terror watch list, convicted criminals and sex offenders.
"Our Border Patrol are continued to be assaulted by illegal aliens," the senator said on Twitter. "President Biden doesn’t care that his open border policies put our law enforcement at risk."
According to The Center Square, Rio Grande Valley agents were assaulted by foreign nationals last week as thousands were crossing the border. Chief Raul Ortiz has said in the past that Border Patrol has no operation control. Ortiz said four agents were assaulted while 34,124 illegal foreign nationals were apprehended, at least 10,866 of whom were classified as known gotaways.
The chief gave statistics to emphasize the magnitude of the situation that has put his agents under attack.
"6 Agents Assaulted, 41,045 Apprehensions, 11,882 Approx Gotaways, $51,894 Seized, 917 lbs. of Cocaine, 528 lbs. of Marijuana, 33 lbs. of Fentanyl, 3 lbs. of Meth, 8 lbs. of Heroin, 14 Firearms, 9 Sex Offenders, 3 Gang Members, 3 Murderers," Ortiz tweeted Friday, April 21.
According to The Center Square, Cruz asked U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas last month: “How many murderers have you released into America?” Mayorkas replied, “I’m not aware of any murderers.”
According to Daily Caller, between October 2022 and February 2023, border agents seized 1,500 pounds of drugs at the northern border, more than the total drugs seized in all of fiscal year 2022. Border agents have also seen an 864% increase in unauthorized immigrants crossing in the Swanton Sector (parts of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire) in January.
“The influx of illegals from the southern border, along with the lack of border enforcement, has created a wave of fentanyl in an area that never had much of either. Overdoses are more and more common, and it’s only picking up,” a northern border agent told Daily Caller. “We have less agents in the field today than we did a few years ago, and we’re catching more than that’s can be attributed straight to the administration’s lack of border security,” National Border Patrol Council President Sean Walsh told Daily Caller.
Fentanyl is being smuggled mainly through the U.S.-Mexico border, with 90% of approximately 80,000 opioid-related deaths due to fentanyl in 2021, CBS News reported. Mexican drug cartels have ramped up the flow of fentanyl into an industry that brings the drugs to the border and into the U.S.
"The vast, vast majority is sought to be smuggled through the ports of entry and tractor-trailer trucks and passenger vehicles," Mayorkas said in the article and at a hearing in February.
Based on new stats from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), New York Post reported Border Patrol agents apprehended 16 people on the FBI Terror Watch List at the U.S.-Mexico border in February alone. The article also said approximately 70 non-citizens on the watch list have been arrested at the southern border since October, which launches CBP's fiscal year.
In considering these trends, New York Post expects this year's numbers to exceed fiscal year 2022's 98 arrests and they already far surpass the 15 apprehensions of people on the watch list in fiscal year 2021.
