U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas apprehended over 430 illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border — in the time span of just five minutes.
At approximately 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Border Patrol agents working near El Paso, Texas apprehended a group of 194 migrants attempting to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a press release from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At 2:50 a.m., agents working near Downtown El Paso encountered a second group consisting of 252 illegal migrants.
In total, border enforcement officials took over 430 illegal migrants into custody within the first three hours of that day. The two groups comprised mostly of Central American families and unaccompanied children.
“In the last 30 days, the U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector is averaging 570 apprehensions a day, with 90 percent of those being in the El Paso Metropolitan Area,” CBP said in a Tuesday statement. “These numbers continue to stretch the resources available to the U.S. Border Patrol to deal with this influx and the challenges that come with it.”
The huge number of apprehensions in the short span of time comes as the U.S. government is expecting March to be a recording-setting month for illegal border crossings on the southern border.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, while giving the annual State of Homeland Security address, said her department is expecting to capture nearly 100,000 migrants by the end of March. This would mark the highest number of apprehensions in over a decade.
“I want to cut through the politics today to tell you loud and clear: There is no ‘manufactured’ crisis at our southern border. There is a real-life humanitarian and security catastrophe,” Nielsen stated Monday during her address. “The situation at our southern border has gone from a crisis, to a national emergency, to a near system-wide meltdown.”
Much like the illegals who were nabbed on Tuesday morning, many of the migrants who try to cross the southern border are Central American or unaccompanied minors. Because of trafficking laws, these people are not able to be quickly deported, unlike Canadian or Mexican nationals. The situation has left immigration officials stretched thin on resources as migrants flood detainment centers.
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