Migrant Apprehensions at Texas-Based Border Sectors in 2021 Nearly Matches Dallas Population

The number of migrants apprehended in the five Texas-based Border Patrol Sectors nearly matched the population of the state’s third-largest city, Dallas. Agents apprehended nearly 1.2 million migrants during the recently ended fiscal year.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, Big Bend, and El Paso Sectors apprehended 1,151,796 migrants, according to the September Southwest Border Land Encounters Report released last Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. If these nearly 1.2 million migrants were placed into a single location, its population would rival that of Dallas’ 1.3 million residents. It would surpass the state’s capital city of Austin’s population of more than 961,000.

The apprehension of migrants in the five Texas-based Border Patrol sectors represents nearly 70 percent of the 1.66 million migrants apprehended along the entire southwest border with Mexico, the report reveals.

The 1.2 million migrants apprehended in the Texas-based sectors include 354,941 family units — an increase of more than 1,000 percent over Fiscal Year 2020. It also includes 683,139 single adults (a 255 percent increase) and 113,716 unaccompanied alien children (a 456 percent increase).

In response to the worsening crisis along the Texas border, Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star to assist the federal government in its responsibility to secure the border with Mexico. In June, Governor Abbott told Breitbart Texas, in an exclusive interview, the State of Texas would begin building its own border barrier system.

Abbott said Texas will immediately begin construction of border barriers in areas like Del Rio where migrants can easily cross unsecured sections. The governor picked Del Rio as the location for his announcement due to the massive increases in illegal border crossings in this region. By the end of the fiscal year, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended 259,294 migrants — the second-largest total along the southwest border and a 542 percent increase over the previous year’s total of only 40,342.

The operation also included the deployment of 2,500 Texas National Guard soldiers and more than 1,000 Texas Department of Public Safety troopers with orders to arrest any migrants found violating state laws, Breitbart Texas reported.

“As of October 7, the operation has resulted in 6,799 criminal arrests, 1,195 migrant prosecution cases for criminal trespass, and more than 71,000 migrant apprehensions,” the article by Randy Clark reports. “The highway patrol has been involved in more than 800 pursuits since the inception of the operation.”