Arizona State Sen. Warren Petersen is delivering a message to President Joe Biden ahead of his scheduled tribute to the late Sen. John McCain on Thursday. “Wake up and do your job,” Petersen said before outlining the situation on Arizona’s southern border.
August border encounters reached more than 322,000. That's the highest monthly total in U.S. history!!
As Joe Biden visits Arizona this week, Senate President @votewarren has a message for him: DO YOUR JOB. WAKE UP. GO VISIT THE BORDER. pic.twitter.com/Dg0Gwy2ovD
— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) September 27, 2023
Biden is attending a series of fundraisers this week. His speech in Arizona is expected to focus on McCain and “the work we must do together to strengthen our democracy,” according to the White House.
Biden, and Arizona’s Democratic Congressional Caucus have refused to acknowledge the border crisis as migrant encounters at the southern border continue to soar and Arizona communities struggle to provide services for the illegal aliens.
The latest numbers from the border were released on Friday, revealing that the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 181,059 encounters between ports of entry along the Southwest border.
CBP’s total encounters along the Southwest border in August were 232,972. These numbers do not reflect the number of illegal aliens who evaded federal agents and escaped into the interior of the United States.
Among CBP’s 232,972 overall encounters along the Southwest border in August 2023, only 11% involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months, compared to an average one-year re-encounter rate of 14% for fiscal years 2014 – 2019 and a repeat encounter rate of 35% in August of 2022.
Experts say the decreasing percentage is because there are fewer removals under the Biden administration, resulting in fewer previously deported individuals attempting to illegally enter again.