National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto called the migrant surge across the southern border “horrific” in an interview Tuesday.
“I don’t care if you’re on the right side or the left side of the aisle. We all deserve to be safe in our homes,” he told Fox News.
“There should be no difference when it comes to our nation’s borders, and right now, it’s beyond chaotic, it’s horrific with these individuals that are coming across.”
Del Cueto was responding to the current situation at the border — in particular, the high number of apprehensions last month.
[firefly_embed_code]
U.S. authorities apprehended about 210,000 migrants at the border in July, according to The Associated Press.
The number was up from 188,829 apprehended in June and the highest number of border apprehensions in over 20 years.
The U.S. authorities also picked up over 19,000 unaccompanied children in July.
“The sharp increases from June were striking because crossings usually slow during stifling — and sometimes fatal — summer heat,” the AP reported.
Del Cueto said the situation was “overwhelming” and the cartels and drug smugglers can take advantage of it.
“They purposefully send big groups across knowing that agents are going to be distracted, knowing that agents are going to be pulled from certain areas of the line so they can, have to process. All the while they are bringing their drugs across,” he said, calling for the administration to do something.
“America’s Newsroom” host Dana Perino played a clip from June in which Vice President Kamala Harris said that the administration had made progress at the border.
“If what they mean by progress is allowing people to enter and break our laws, then I guess, you know, in their eyes, that’s progress. But realistically, there’s been no progress,” Del Cueto responded.
He added that the issue is being exacerbated by apprehended individuals being sent elsewhere in the country and then testing positive for COVID-19.
“It’s a domino effect that just — there is no end in sight right now unless you go back to the policies that worked under the last administration,” Del Cueto said.
“The ‘Remain in Mexico’ was the humane way to do things because it fast-tracked those that had real asylum claims and at the same time, it discouraged all the people that are coming across right now finding those loopholes in our immigration system.”
In the Rio Grande Valley Sector, over 135 detainees tested positive for the coronavirus in the first two weeks of July, Fox News reported.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
