News and Commentary

Illegal Immigration Across Southern Border Plunging Because Of Coronavirus

   DailyWire.com
The entrance to the Paso del Norte International Bridge is quiet on a weekday that it is usually busy with border crossers on April 1, 2020 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Photo by Paul Ratje/ AFP via Getty Images

Since the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic struck, illegal immigration across the southern border of the United States has plunged dramatically, with the numbers dropping to a level unseen since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

One high-ranking border official confirmed to The Washington Examiner, “It’s like next to nothing. For almost a week, their apprehensions have been under 150. This is what happened on 9/11 — on steroids. Mexico has locked down a lot of their country … and then they [migrants] think if they come to the U.S., they’re going to catch the virus.”

BizPacReview noted, “To put this in perspective, in February border officials apprehended 30,000 illegal aliens, whereas in May of last year they apprehended a whopping 132,000 illegals.”

The Examiner reported that on Sunday March 29 Border Patrol agents encountered only 79 people agents “nationwide after they had attempted to enter the country between ports of entry. If that rate continued over the course of a month, it would make for fewer than 2,500 apprehensions, a drop in the bucket compared to the 30,000 arrests that agents made just on the southern border in February and 132,000 at the peak of the border crisis last May.”

One Border Patrol official pointed out, “The issue is what to do with everyone on the border since there’s no one to arrest. They flushed out the academy, and they need places for them to go. People are on the payroll, and you have to have them start doing work.”

Business Insider reported, “The U.S. military is deploying an additional 540 troops to the US-Mexico border to assist Border Patrol agents handling migrants who may be COVID-19 positive … As the U.S. deploys troops, hospital ships and other military assets across the U.S. to combat the rapidly spreading COVID-19, Gen. Terrance O’Shaughnessy, the commander of US NORTHCOM told reporters Wednesday that there was also an ‘increased demand signal’ for support to help secure the southern border over COVID-19 concerns.”

BizPac Review reported, “The onslaught of the coronavirus has not only sent the global economy tumbling — it has also hit the black market where it hurts, and Mexican cartels are no exception. The outbreak of COVID-19 has sent the price of heroin, methamphetamines and fentanyl soaring, as the likes of the Sinaloa cartel – and its main rival, the Jalisco ‘New Generation’ – struggle to obtain the necessary chemicals to make the synthetic drugs, which typically come from China and are now in minimal supply.”

Derek Maltz, a former special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division in New York, told Fox News, “The cartels have suffered from COVID-19 due to the inability to get the regular shipments of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals for the massive production of meth from China. The cartels have continued their production at a slower rate, but the demand seems to be increasing during these times of uncertainty in America. The shutdown of cities in China and travel in and out of China have also negatively impacted the flow of chemicals and drugs to Mexico.”

President Trump stated last Wednesday, “As governments and nations focus on the coronavirus, there’s a growing threat that cartels, criminals, terrorists, and other malign actors will try to exploit the situation for their own gain. And we must not let that happen. We will never let that happen. Today, the United States is launching enhanced counter-narcotics operations in the Western Hemisphere to protect the American people from the deadly scourge of illegal narcotics. We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives.”

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, “We’re looking at both our northern and our southern border. We want to make sure that cargo continues, trade continues, heath care workers continue to be able to traverse that border. But tourism, some recreational activities and other things needs to stop during this crisis.”

 

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Illegal Immigration Across Southern Border Plunging Because Of Coronavirus