EXCLUSIVE: Migrant Apprehensions in October Jump 129 Percent over Prior Year

Border Patrol documents show that agents apprehended nearly 160,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border during the first month of the new fiscal year. The information shows an increase of nearly 129 percent over October 2020.

The unofficial Border Patrol report, reviewed by Breitbart Texas, shows that agents apprehended more than 158,000 migrants who crossed the southwest border with Mexico between ports of entry in October. The number of apprehensions is up dramatically from October 2020 when agents apprehended only 69,032 — an increase of nearly 129 percent.

Of those, more than 45,000 crossed into the Rio Grande Valley Sector in South Texas. This sector accounted for approximately 29 percent of all migrant apprehensions throughout the nine southwest border sectors. The Del Rio Sector came in second with more than 28,000 apprehensions. This was followed closely by the Yuma Sector’s 28,000 apprehensions.

The five Texas-based Border Patrol sectors accounted for nearly 98,000 of the 158,000 migrants apprehended in October. This represents approximately 62 percent of all southwest border migrant apprehensions, the report shows.

Officials are expected to release the official numbers for October sometime in the next 10 to 14 days. Those numbers could be adjusted from the initial draft of the report.

This report did not include any demographics regarding the nationalities or categories of migrants. It does not indicate how many were single adults, family units, or unaccompanied migrant children.

In November 2020, Breitbart Texas cited the Southwest Border Migration report showing agents apprehended 66,337 migrants. This represented an increase of 87 percent over the apprehensions in October 2019.

During the November briefing by then-CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, the Trump administration stressed the COVID threat posed by these migrants.

“They’re telling us that their wants and needs are more important than your lives,” Morgan stated during a press conference attended by Brietbart. “They’re telling us their own economic conditions are more important than the lives of American citizens and all of those they come in contact with during their deadly journey.”

The commissioner described the journey taken by these migrants through COVID hot spots and under unhealthy conditions.

“They go through high COVID locations, often packed and jammed in overcrowded stash houses both in the United States and/or in Mexico,” he explained, “or locked in tractor-trailers for days or often weeks. A journey in which they completely disregard even the most basic medical guidance to mitigate the spread of the deadly disease.”

“The smugglers, they could care less about the migrants,” Morgan stated. “They could care less about their well-being, their lives, or that these conditions serve as active COVID-19 incubators resulting in the further introduction and spread of COVID-19 within the United States.”

Roll forward one year, and Biden administration officials are actively releasing migrants who may be exposed or have contracted COVID-19 into the U.S.

A source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection speaking to Breitbart under the condition of anonymity said that of the more than 158,000 migrants apprehended in October, only 59,000 were returned to Mexico under the Title 42 coronavirus protection protocol put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration.

Nearly 100,000 migrants required longer detention in temporary holding facilities while awaiting processing for delayed removal under the order or in the case of more than 60,000 migrants, release into the United States.