On January 20th, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection published its latest figures for the previous month.
The results showed a significant rise in encounters with migrants.
Specifically, in December, border agents recorded 251,487 cases, which represented a 7% increase from the previous month of November.
According to Dan Stein, President of FAIR, 2.7 million migrants who either entered the country or were deemed inadmissible at a port of entry were intercepted at our borders during the Fiscal Year 2022.
This brings the total number of migrants under President Biden’s administration to a staggering 5.5 million.
Although the White House has repeatedly claimed that the border is secure, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has disputed this assertion, stating that he has observed otherwise: “The problems along the border are only getting worse due to President Biden’s inaction. Property is being destroyed, deadly drugs and illegal weapons are being smuggled into communities throughout the state, law enforcement is having to redirect their resources, and county judges and mayors are facing skyrocketing expenses.”
Abbott decided to take matters into his own hands, and, in June of 2021, he unveiled a strategy for constructing barriers along the state’s border with Mexico, referred to as the “Border Wall Construction Strategy.”
Following several delays, including issues with obtaining sufficient funding and a halt on border wall construction that the Biden Administration put in place on January 20th, 2021, Texas has now restarted its construction efforts and has dedicated over $1.05 billion to the cause.
On Sunday, Abbott posted a video on Twitter demonstrating the state’s ongoing construction of its own border wall with the caption “Texas is building our own border wall.”
In response to the ongoing border crisis, Abbott also recently appointed Mike Banks, a veteran Border Patrol agent, as the state’s first-ever border czar to tackle the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
As the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis draws criticism from Republicans, many states have taken it upon themselves to address the issue, with Texas starting to bus migrants to sanctuary cities like New York, whose governor claims the city has “no more room,” leading to protests erupting when officials tried to relocate single migrants from hotels to emergency shelters.
Despite these efforts by Republican-led states to tighten border policies, it remains to be seen if they will have a significant impact on the current migration, as the U.S. continues to experience record-high border crossings.
