627K Migrants Apprehended this Year in Texas-Based Border Sectors

Border Patrol agents in the five Texas-based border sectors apprehended nearly 627,000 migrants since October. This represents approximately 62 percent of all migrant apprehensions along the U.S. southwest border.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, Del Rio, Big Bend, and El Paso Sectors apprehended 626,750 migrants during this fiscal year which began on October 1, 2021. This represents 62 percent of the more than one million migrants apprehended along the entire southwest border this year.

The nearly 627,000 apprehensions in the Texas-based sectors include nearly 129,000 just in March, according to statistics obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

While the Rio Grande Valley Sector remains the most active with more than 245,000 apprehensions so far this year, the Del Rio Sector is gaining ground with more than 195,000 apprehensions. The Del Rio Sector reported a near 185 percent increase over the previous year’s apprehensions for the same period.

Federal officials expect to see an increase in apprehensions and border crossings when they end the Title 42 coronavirus protection protocol.

“While we may likely see an increase in encounters after the CDC’s Title 42 Public Health Order is terminated on May 23rd, CBP continues to execute this Administration’s comprehensive strategy to safely, orderly, and humanely manage our borders,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a written statement earlier this week. “CBP is surging personnel and resources to the border, increasing processing capacity, securing more ground and air transportation, and increasing medical supplies, food, water, and other resources to ensure a humane environment for those being processed.”

“Since President Biden took office over a year ago, his dangerous open border policies have created an ongoing crisis along our southern border, with a 61-year record-high of illegal immigrants surging into our state smuggled by the cartels, along with deadly drugs like fentanyl, weapons, and other contraband,” Governor Abbott’s spokesperson Renae Eze told Breitbart. “Texas border communities and local officials are overwhelmed and overrun by the historic levels of illegal crossings, and President Biden has turned a blind eye to their suffering.”

“Governor Abbott continues stepping up and taking action to secure our border, having launched Operation Lone Star, deploying Texas National Guard soldiers and DPS troopers, and issuing a disaster declaration to surge critical resources and personnel to protect Texans in border communities,”she added. “And last week, Governor Abbott negotiated historic agreements with all four Mexican border governors to begin and continue enhanced border security enforcement measures on their side of our shared border to address this ongoing crisis. Texas is throwing every tool and strategy at President Biden’s border crisis to protect our state and our nation.”

The governor responded to the federal government’s plan to end Title 42 by expanding the State’s Operation Lone Star border security mission. As part of this expanded operation, the governor sent seven busloads of migrants released in Texas by the federal government to Washington, D.C. The seventh busload arrived in the nation’s capital on the morning of April 20.

The governor also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to expand safety inspections of commercial vehicles crossing from Mexico into Texas. During the first week of this program, DPS troopers took nearly 1,000 trucks with “serious safety violations” off the roads.

The economic pressure on Mexico created by the backlog of trucks being able to cross into Texas led four Mexican border-state governors to sign agreements with Texas to enhance border security on their side of the Rio Grande.

The apprehension numbers listed above do not include the thousands of migrant got-aways. These are migrants who are estimated to have crossed the border illegally and avoided apprehension.