While human traffickers continue to push their customers across the border at great peril and expense, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has focused on climate change while Senator Kelly has called for “ensuring a secure, humane, and orderly process at our southern border,” through increased federal funding.
Critics say increased funding is absolutely necessary, but there is nothing humane about what the Biden administration has allowed to occur on the wide-open southern border.
On Friday, Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin, of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, released shocking photos of the situation on the border. Modlin shared the photos in a tweet:
Week in Review…
– 11,000 Apprehensions
– 115 Federal Criminal Cases
– 66 Rescues
– 33 lbs. of Fentanyl
– 20 lbs. of Methamphetamine
– 18 Human Smuggling Events
– 8 Narcotics Events
#HonorFirst…
Week in Review…
– 11,000 Apprehensions
– 115 Federal Criminal Cases
– 66 Rescues
– 33 lbs. of Fentanyl
– 20 lbs. of Methamphetamine
– 18 Human Smuggling Events
– 8 Narcotics Events#HonorFirst pic.twitter.com/Vmn6tUO5D9— John R. Modlin (@USBPChiefTCA) October 28, 2023
On that same day, Modlin reported in a tweet: “Agents from the Ajo Station encountered a large group of 186 migrants that illegally crossed the border west of the Lukeville Port of Entry. The group consisted of mostly adult males from 14 different countries. They were taken into custody and transported for processing.”
The Arizona Sheriffs Association announced this week they are sending deputies from Apache, Coconino, Navajo, Pinal, and Yavapai to Cochise County to work alongside other law enforcement to curb border related crime. In response to the dangerous conditions human smuggling has created, sheriffs’ deputies from across Arizona will work their shifts in Cochise County to help staunch the flow of drugs and human smuggling into the state.
A group of migrants attempting to evade detection were spotted by air support operating south of Sells, AZ, Monday morning. Three Points Station agents on the Motorcycle Unit responded to the area and quickly apprehended five migrants. #HonorFirst pic.twitter.com/ZTa7mydsCV
— John R. Modlin (@USBPChiefTCA) October 26, 2023
In early October, the American Sheriff Alliance called for increased security along the border due in part to the “alarming statistics of encounters with individuals found to be on the Terrorist Watch List, also known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS).
The sheriffs argue that the “diversity of the countries of origin for migrant encounters is also concerning, particularly with those who have strained diplomatic relations with the U.S.”
The sheriffs claim that the driving forces behind the flood can be traced back to the lack of border security as well as the Sinaloa Cartel run by Ismael Zambada Garcia (“El Mayo”) and Jalisco New Generation Cartel run by Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes (“El Mencho”).
Along the southwest border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) TSDS encounters between ports of entry of non-U.S. citizens have continually risen over the past six years. The following are the number of TSDS encounters according to CBP: 2017 – 2 encounters, 2018 – 6 encounters, 2019 – 0 encounters, 2020 – 3 encounters, 2021 – 15 encounters, 2022 – 98 encounters, and 2023 YTD – 151 encounters, according to the sheriffs. From 2021, this represents a 906% increase in TSDS encounters; there are still three months left in 2023.