Texas Border Sector: 35K Migrants Apprehended in Last Two Weeks

Del Rio Sector Border Patrol officials report the apprehension of nearly 35,000 migrants during the last two weeks of December. At about the same time, Tucson Sector officials reported apprehending more than 30,000 migrants.

Del Rio Sector Acting Chief Patrol Agent Juan Bernal posted a report on X showing the apprehension of 12,849 migrants between December 24-30. In addition, he reported another 1,182 migrans as known got-aways.

The apprehensions included the arrest of four criminal aliens and 31 large migrant groups, Bernal stated.

One week prior, Bernal posted a report showing the apprehension of 22,024 migrants, 1,591 got-aways, and the arrest of five criminal aliens. The agents encountered 27 large migrant groups during the December 17-23 period.

During the month of December, Del Rio Sector agents apprehended a record-shattering 71,000 migrants, Breitbart Texas reported. The Del Rio Sector’s prior record was set in August 2022 when agents apprehended 52,735 migrants. The December apprehension of more than 71,000 migrants exceeds that record by nearly 35 percent. Agents in the Tucson Sector broke a record going back to the Clinton administration with the apprehension of approximately 80,000 migrants in December.

Following the record-shattering month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made a quick stop in Eagle Pass on the eve of his House impeachment hearings. During a press conference that excluded Breitbart Texas and Fox News (according to a source within U.S. Customs and Border Protection), Secretary Mayorkas placed the blame on the number at the feet of Congress.

The secretary stated:

We now need Congress to do their part and act. Our immigration system is outdated and broken and has been in need of reform for literally decades. On this, everyone agrees. It is the very reason why President Biden submitted to Congress, on his very first day in office, proposed legislation. Now, three years later, I am privileged to be working with both Republicans and Democratic Senators who are working tirelessly on much-needed reform and long-overdue fixes to our system.

We need Congress to provide the supplemental funding that President Biden requested months ago. We need more Border Patrol Agents and more case processors so that the Agents can be out in the field doing the heroic work that is their fundamental mission. We need more Officers so that migration surges do not force mitigation measures of last resort, like bridge closures. We need more asylum officers and immigration judges so that we can resolve asylum claims quickly – granting relief when it is warranted, removing migrants when it is not, and reducing the 3-million-case immigration court backlog that has been growing for years and years. We need more technology to combat the smuggling of fentanyl through our ports of entry, and more facilities to process and detain migrants during immigration enforcement proceedings. We need more transportation funding to facilitate an increase in removal flights, and more resources for detention beds and Alternatives to Detention, and to bolster our Family Expedited Removal Management, or FERM, process.

Mayorkas noted expanded cooperation from Mexico following his recent trip with U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken:

We are grateful for Mexico’s renewed enforcement commitments to address the movement of people north. We are working with other countries throughout Latin America, including Panama, to address the movement of people throughout the hemisphere. We continue to develop lawful pathways, deliver consequences for those who do not use them, address root causes, and attack the ruthless smuggling organizations that prey on the vulnerable.

Secretary Mayorkas is scheduled to appear before an impeachment hearing on January 10, Breitbart News reported. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) said the committee’s investigation “made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability.”

The DHS secretary rejected the notion that his agency is not enforcing the law, saying:

Some have accused DHS of not enforcing our nation’s laws. This could not be further from the truth. Having begun my public service career as a federal prosecutor for 12 years, ultimately serving as the United States Attorney, there is nothing I take more seriously than our responsibility to uphold the law, and the men and women of DHS are working around the clock to do so.

The individuals who have been returned to their countries of origin certainly know this. After the ending of Title 42 in May, through the end of the fiscal year, DHS removed or returned more noncitizens without a basis to remain in the United States than in any other five-month period in the last ten years. In fact, the majority of all Southwest Border migrant encounters throughout this Administration have been removed, returned, or expelled – the majority of them. We are doing everything we can, within a broken system, to incentivize noncitizens to use lawful pathways, to impose consequences on those who do not, and to reduce irregular migration.

It is worth noting that of the 22,000 migrants apprehended in the Del Rio Sector during Christmas week, only 2,000 were immediately removed, Chief Bernal reported. Most of the balance were released into the U.S. with a notice to appear before an immigration court at some distant future date.

Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. 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. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Apprehension numbers for December come from unofficial Border Patrol reports reviewed by Breitbart Texas. The numbers are subject to change in official reports when they are released. The December Southwest Land Border Encounters report is due to be released by mid-January.