More than 3,500 Chinese nationals were found illegally crossing the southern border in May, along with hundreds of Jordanian, Turkish and Mauritanian nationals, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources who spoke to Fox News.
The vast majority (98%) were found in the San Diego sector, which has become a major border crossing point, even as numbers across the border have declined in recent months.
While the Tucson sector of Arizona had the highest number of encounters, with more than 33,000 illegal encounters, San Diego came in second with more than 32,000.
MAYORKAS SAYS SOME MIGRANTS ‘TRYING TO GAME’ WITH THE ASYLUM SYSTEM AS THE BORDER CRISIS REMAINS THE MAIN POLITICAL PROBLEM
Migrants are processed by U.S. Border Patrol at a new makeshift camp after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on May 26, 2024, in Jacumba Hot Springs, San Diego, California. ((Photo by Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images))
In the San Diego sector, more than 770 Jordanians, more than 670 Turks and more than 500 Mauritanian citizens were recorded crossing illegally into the sector in May, giving an idea of the global nature of the US immigration crisis, which is has expanded beyond the West. Hemisphere.
The influx of Jordanian citizens was highlighted last month when two people from Jordan were arrested for attempting to break into Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. One of those citizens had crossed illegally into the United States in April and then been released into the interior of the United States.
The number of Chinese nationals has increased tremendously since 2021. There were 1,970 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 24,000 in fiscal year 2023, and there have been more than 24,200 encounters so far this fiscal year.
Fox News is told that approximately 118,000 immigrants crossed the United States illegally and were detained by Border Patrol in May. More than 6,300 of them were “special interest aliens” from countries with potential national security concerns.
The current crisis at the border threatens to be a major issue for President Biden’s re-election campaign. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. recently said that some immigrants crossing the southern border are “trying to game” the U.S. asylum system, a hardening of rhetoric given that the crisis at the border remains a top political issue in the face of November presidential elections.
Migrants arrive at a makeshift camp after crossing the nearby border with Mexico near Jacumba Hot Springs on February 23, 2024, in San Diego, California. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images)
THE INCREASE IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM THIS US ADVERSARY ABOVE THE RECORD OF THE PREVIOUS YEAR
“The reality is that some people are really trying to game the system,” Mayorkas said. CBS News. “That doesn’t affect everyone we encounter, but there is an element and we deal with it accordingly.”
The administration has demanded reforms from Congress, including the bipartisan Senate bill. It has also noted 720,000 deportations or returns of illegal immigrants since May 2023, more than in every full fiscal year since 2011.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
Mayorkas said in the interview that a recent bipartisan border security proposal, which failed to gain support in the Senate, “would have equipped us with more tools to deal with those individuals who seek to game the system.”
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Republicans have blamed the administration’s policies, including reversing Trump-era policies such as building the wall, the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), and increasing domestic enforcement. They have passed their own legislation in the House that would significantly limit asylum claims and restart construction of the border wall and similar measures. It has not yet been taken up by the Senate.
