Border Patrol now on track for record breaking 2 million arrests

by KAYLA GASKINS | The National Desk

Tue, August 16th 2022, 9:17 PM UTC

FILE - In this Thursday, June 10, 2021, file photo, a pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall to reach the United States after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum. Border officials got the go-ahead Thursday, July 28, 2022, to fill four remaining gaps in the U.S.-Mexico wall near the southern Arizona community of Yuma for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)

{ }A migrant waits of the Mexican side of the border after United States Customs and Border Protection officers detained a couple of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border on the beach, in Tijuana, Mexico, Jan. 26, 2022. About 3 in 10 also worry that more immigration can cause native-born Americans to lose their economic, political and cultural influence, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File){br}

FILE - Migrants hold Red Cross blankets after arriving at Union Station near the U.S. Capitol from Texas on buses, April 27, 2022, in Washington. The Pentagon has rejected a request from the District of Columbia seeking National Guard assistance for the thousands of migrants being bused to the city from two southern states. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

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FILE - In this Thursday, June 10, 2021, file photo, a pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall to reach the United States after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum. Border officials got the go-ahead Thursday, July 28, 2022, to fill four remaining gaps in the U.S.-Mexico wall near the southern Arizona community of Yuma for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)

WASHINGTON (TND) — U.S. Border Patrol agents are on track to arrest more than two million illegal migrants by the time the fiscal year wraps up on Sept. 30. It's the first time ever that border arrests have surpassed that mark.

“Joe Biden is making a lot of records when it comes to illegal immigration and drugs but all of them are bad,” said Lora Ries, director of Border Security and Immigration for the Heritage Foundation. “Whether it is the number of migrant deaths at the border the pounds of fentanyl and other poisonous drugs that are crossing the border, etc.”

At first glance, the numbers do appear to be improving. Overall encounters in July are down from a record-setting month in May. Historically migration does slow in the hottest part of the summer.

It’s a welcome decrease but July's numbers are still more than double what they were in July of 2019.

“It needs to be taken very seriously. It’s the number one job of the president to protect Americans and protect this country,” added Ries.

Despite this, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told a crowd at the Aspen Security Forum that “the border is secure.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called the statement “implausible.” During a Senate Judiciary Hearing Cornyn turned the question to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray who refused to discredit Mayorkas directly but did say he thinks “the border presents significant security issues.”

Attempting to draw national attention to the crisis, the governors of Texas and Arizona continue to bus migrants to Washington D.C. and New York City, both are sanctuary cities.

The northeast mayors have slammed the border governors for the move while demanding federal support for the invented influx into their cities.

New York City officials are now announcing they’re putting together a formal education plan for migrant children.

As races heat up for November’s midterms, districts along the south Texas border have turned into some of the most closely watched battlegrounds in the country. Republicans continue to gain ground with Hispanics. It’s still unclear how big of an impact their progress will have come election day.

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