Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents report a surge in the number of Haitian migrants illegally crossing the border into Texas. Agents quickly process and expel them back to Mexico under Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols.

In the past 20 days, Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector of Texas apprehended more than 450  Haitian nationals after they illegally crossed the border from Mexico into the United States, sector officials reported. Officials report the crossings as a surge in illegal border crossings by citizens of the island nation.

During that 20-day period, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended more than 1,800 migrants who illegally crossed the border between ports of entry. Those migrants came to the U.S. from 26 different countries, officials reported. The Haitian contingent represents 25 percent of all of the migrants apprehended in the sector this month.

The three-week surge stands in sharp contrast to the approximately 1,982 Haitian migrants apprehended in the sector for all of Fiscal Year 2020 which ended on September 30.

“Smugglers are despicable criminals who spread false information that upon entry, these people will be released into our communities,” said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II. “Aside from special circumstances, they are prosecuted or returned to their country of origin as soon as possible.”

Officials said the migrants were processed and expelled to Mexico under Title 42 Coronavirus protection protocols put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC began the program in March. Since that time, Border Patrol agents expelled more than 197,000 migrants to Mexico, Breitbart Texas reported.

During last week’s Fiscal Year 2020 annual report discussion, CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters, “The president’s support of the CDC public health order (Title 42) which directed CBP to remove illegal aliens we encounter in between our ports of entry immediately to further reduce the introduction of COVID-19 into our congregant settings.”

The commissioner said agents encounter migrants who travel through multiple countries to reach the U.S. and make illegal entry. He explained they are forced by the human smugglers to travel through COVID hot-spots and are packed into tractor-trailers and stash houses.

Under Title 42, “Today we are removing 90 percent of those we encounter in less than two hours,” Morgan stated. “It has saved countless American lives.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.