Hundreds of Border Patrol agents are being pulled from across the country to address an influx of illegal immigrants trying to run from authorities in a Texas border town, multiple Department of Homeland Security sources told The Daily Wire.
At least 200 Border Patrol agents from both the southern and northern borders are being pulled for 30-day volunteer duties to support colleagues in Laredo, Texas, who are trying to chase down the “gotaways,” sources said. The number of “gotaways” running through Laredo is not public.
“Everyone from across the country is getting sent there,” one source said.
A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees Border Patrol, confirmed the deployment, which they characterized as part of their effort “to continue to secure our border.”
“That sector is bordered entirely by river, with no natural barriers to slow illegal crossings, which makes it a target when smuggling routes shift and evolve,” the spokesperson said, referring to Laredo.
“Thanks to President Trump, we have the most secure border in American history,” the spokesperson added. “Thanks to record low crossings, we have the manpower and flexibility to move agents quickly, concentrate resources, and take enforcement action where it matters most.”
Border agents monitor gotaways through sensors and cameras, but the true number isn’t known. During the Biden administration, the number of known gotaways surged past 2 million illegal immigrants, according to the House Homeland Security Committee.
A Border Patrol source stationed along the northern border told The Daily Wire they’re not volunteering to head south because there’s not enough manpower to cover the smuggling traffic coming from Canada. While fewer than 600 illegal migrants have been caught crossing the northern border each month since November, some stations find it difficult with fewer agents to cover the largest land crossing in the world.
Border agents stationed in the Laredo border sector were seeing thousands of illegal migrants cross each month under the Biden administration. Now, the numbers are in the hundreds and slightly jumped in March, when agents caught 1,242 illegal migrants.
“They’re asking for manpower, they already have close to 2,000 agents on the southern border, so if you’re having that many gotaways then that’s a leadership thing,” the agent said. “None of us need to go over there because we got our own stations to take care of, that’s how most of the agents feel.”
“On the northern border, we’re in small towns that are south of these small cities that are hubs for illegals. There is this massive influx coming out of all of these cities and they’re coming into small towns so we have to be vigilant of local police resources. Sometimes, you’re the only agent out in the field and you have to deal with people that are trying to get in pursuits,” the agent added.
President Donald Trump has imposed harsher consequences for illegal border crossers, while carrying out a mass deportation campaign. That effort has driven illegal crossings down to historic lows.
More than 8 million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border during the Biden administration, which was releasing them en masse.
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