Top patrol officials said officers were “overwhelmed” by the influx of immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, a spiraling “crisis” that intensified this week when an armed battle broke out. between rival poster bands in a Texas city.
“A week ago I would not have described it as a crisis. Today it meets the definition. We’re overwhelmed, ”Brandon Judd, chairman of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Wednesday night.
“We don’t have the resources to prevent cartels from carrying illegal aliens, carrying drugs, so in fact we are in a crisis,” he added.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he had no plans to travel to the southern border “for now” amid an increase in migrants.
Instead, Biden sent a blunt message to immigrants thinking about crossing the border, saying “Don’t come” when asked by ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.
“Don’t leave your town, city or community,” he added.
A senior CBP official told Fox the situation is unsustainable.
The president understands that it is a crisis and that is why he told the migrants not to “approach,” the official told the network on condition of anonymity.
By undoing former President Donald Trump’s border initiatives, Biden unleashed a flood of illegal immigrants at the border, including thousands of unescorted children.
In his first month in office, he completed the construction of Trump’s border wall and began ending the “Stay in Mexico” policy according to which some 71,000 Central American asylum seekers were awaiting sentences in Mexico.
The border patrol had detained more than 4,000 migrant children as of Sunday, with at least 3,000 of them in custody more than the 72-hour limit set by a court order, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, National Security Department Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the border situation as “difficult,” but stopped calling it a crisis, according to Fox News.
“The situation on the southwestern border is difficult,” Mayorkas said. “We are working 24 hours a day to manage it and we will continue to do so. This is our job. We are moving forward and we are executing our plan. Time will pass and we will not hesitate in our commitment to success ”.
CBP officials made their comments while the media reported that a shooting had broken out near Rome, a Texas community between two rival cartels.
Jaeson Jones, a former captain in the Texas Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence and counterterrorism division, said “it’s time” for the federal government to focus more on the growing cartel violence.
Jones told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that he regularly attends gun battles in Miguel Aleman’s Mexican city of Tamaulipas on the other side of the Rio Grande from Rome, according to Fox News.
“This community has been in battle between two cartels for the past two years: Cartel del Golfo (Cartel del Golfo) and Cartel del Noreste (known as Los Zetas by many people,”) Jones said.
