Border Patrol Overwhelmed, Chief Says Agency Has Made 30,000 Arrests in the Past 10 Days
Chief of Law Enforcement Operations for U.S. Border Patrol, Brian Hastings, said his agency has apprehended more than 30,000 illegal immigrants on the southern border in just the past 10 days.
Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost tweeted about the overwhelming number of migrants making their way to the border and called it “unsustainable” and “beyond capacity.”
She also said temporary living facilities are experiencing crippling overflow, forcing the government to release illegal immigrants into neighboring communities.
#BorderPatrol agents are arresting more & more family units every day. These numbers are unsustainable & the system is beyond capacity. Despite measures to increase capacity with additional temp facilities, #USBP has had to release overflow into the communities as a last resort. pic.twitter.com/vnUY21pw2M
— USBPChief (@USBPChief) May 4, 2019
“This is a challenge unlike any we’ve ever faced before,” Hasting said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
“We’re up to 474,000 arrests so far this fiscal, and just the last 10 days alone, 33,000 arrests for us.
“So, our facilities were not designed to handle this type of flow or more importantly, this demographic — about 63 percent being family units and UACs, or unaccompanied alien children.”
In March, U.S. Border Patrol released 14,500 migrants into the Phoenix, Arizona, area and 37,500 into south Texas.
They were also forced to release 24,000 illegal immigrants into El Paso, Texas, and 8,500 into San Diego, according to Fox News.
“As I’ve said before, we’re being overwhelmed right now,” Hastings said.
He also criticized current immigration law and said there must be a consequence for entering the U.S. illegally.
“Our facilities just simply weren’t designed to handle this type of flow or this demographic,” Hastings continued.
“And so with that, we have had to look at for the safety of our agents and for those that we detained, releasing process noncriminal family units which we don’t want to do.
“We want to apply a consequence, but with the outdated laws we simply cannot apply a consequence with what we have right now.”
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