Will Apprehending More Than 1,600 Illegal Aliens Over a Weekend be Commonplace This Summer?

As the crisis continues to grow at the southern border with no end sight, Border Patrol agents have remained on the frontlines attempting to impede the chaos from seeping into the interior of the United States. A slew of apprehensions in Arizona might foreshadow what’s to come in the approaching summer months if the Biden administration does not reign in its reckless immigration policies.

On May 3, Chief Border Agent Chris T. Clem announced the apprehensions of more than 1,600 illegal aliens over the previous weekend in the Yuma Sector, which included 13 groups of aliens consisting of 30 or more migrants each. Chief Border Agent Clem also said many unlawful migrants entered through areas of the border that did not have proper infrastructure or barriers to block their entry.

These mass apprehensions should come as no surprise. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data showed that March had a whopping 172,231 apprehensions at the Southwest border – the highest monthly total for that month since Fiscal Year 2000. According to preliminary data obtained by TheBlaze, CBP agents arrested 177,431 illegal aliens at the southern border in April. As FAIR has noted, the cooler months tend to yield fewer illegal border crossings. However, President Joe Biden’s immigration policies have attracted countless foreign nationals to flood the southern border at unprecedented levels during typically “slower” months of the year. 

Furthermore, the administration’s decision to stop further construction of the border wall, combined with inadequate numbers of border agents, has complicated efforts to minimize the number of “got-aways” or unlawful migrants detected by authorities who evade capture. An estimated 1,000 migrants escape from border agents each day, many of whom have criminal backgrounds.

Several border localities in the United States have already declared a state of emergency due to the scores of illegal aliens overwhelming their communities, which the president has yet to address. Unless he reverses his immigration agenda, more apprehensions of this scale will almost certainly occur, and Americans will only continue to suffer the consequences of the Biden administration’s misplaced priorities.