RNC Research
October 22, 2022

Worst Year At The Border On Record 

In A Late Night Friday News Dump, DHS Confirmed This Is The Worst Border Crisis On Record, With 2.4 Million Illegal Immigrants Apprehended In The Last Year

2022: THE WORST YEAR AT THE BORDER ON RECORD  

·         Newly released Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data from a late-night Friday news dump shows 227,547 illegal immigrants were apprehended attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in September, making this the highest total for September in DHS history.

o   That is a 374 percent increase from the average number of September apprehensions during the Trump administration.

o   11,900 unaccompanied children were apprehended.

o   98 people on the terror watchlist were apprehended trying to enter the U.S. between ports of entry in the last year.

o   128,121 illegal immigrants were apprehended from countries outside the Northern Triangle and Mexico, showing that Biden’s crisis is global.

·         Nearly 2.4 million illegal immigrants crossed the border in the fiscal year that ended in September, a new record.

o   This is a 37 percent increase over FY 2021 – the previous record – and a 419 percent increase over FY 2020 – President Trump’s last full year in office.

o   More than 4.7 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border since Biden took office.

o   This includes the nearly 3.8 million illegal immigrants that Customs and Border Protection has apprehended and the over 900,000 gotaways that have escaped past Border Patrol into the U.S.

o   Border officials say that the official number of gotaways vastly undercounts the illegal immigrants who make it into the U.S.

o   Despite this ongoing crisis, Kamala Harris still claims “we have a secure border.”

·         Biden has installed a de facto amnesty program in which nearly 50,000 illegal immigrants have had their cases dismissed in court due to his administration’s failure to file the proper paperwork.

·         Homeland Security Investigations estimates that Mexican cartels are now making $13 billion a year smuggling illegal immigrants into the U.S, 26 times what they made in 2018.

DRUGS FLOW OVER THE BORDER AS CRIME IS SURGING 

·         Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate, with only a fraction being intercepted as border officials struggle to contain the smuggling.

·         1,826 pounds of deadly fentanyl and 10,612 pounds of methamphetamine were seized at the southern border in September alone, with much more likely getting through.

o   Joshua Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: “If they’re seizing a lot, it’s because a lot is coming in.”

o   The amount of fentanyl seized in September is the equivalent of more than 414 million lethal doses.  

o   More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in all of FY 2019 under President Trump.

·         Deadly rainbow fentanyl, which is designed by cartels to target children and teens, has been increasingly caught crossing the border and is now in 21 states.

o   This surge in rainbow fentanyl has deadly consequences, as fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45 and synthetic opioid deaths have skyrocketed 80 percent in two years.

·         In Nogales, Arizona, more than six million fentanyl pills have been seized by Border Patrol agents just since August 1.

·         In Tucson, Arizona, two convicted felons, who were both previously convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, were recently arrested attempting to cross into the U.S. again.

BIDEN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE AT THE BORDER

·         Despite Biden’s promise of a “fair and humane immigration system,” his open border policies aren’t compassionate; they are deadly.

·         Nearly 750 illegal migrants have died this fiscal year attempting to cross the border, making this year the deadliest at the southwest border in history. 

·         In Kinney County, Texas, three were killed and three others were injured when a human smuggler crashed his car as he was smuggling illegal immigrants into Texas. 

o   The border crisis in Kinney County has gotten so dire that large rocks were placed outside of a public school to prevent smugglers and illegal immigrants from crashing into the building during high speed chases. 

·         In Uvalde, Texas, a pursuit started by Border Patrol of a 17-year-old human smuggler ended in a deadly crash that killed two and sent at least seven to the hospital.

·         In Eagle Pass, Texas, the number of illegal immigrants dying is so high “local mortuaries are no longer taking in the deceased” and instead, “the state has had to provide a refrigerated trailer.” 

BIDEN’S OPEN BORDER POLICIES CREATED THIS CRISIS 

·         Biden’s failed policies created the crisis at the southern border.

o   In Biden’s first 100 days he took more than 94 executive actions on immigration, including halting construction of the border wall and ending the Trump administration’s successful “Remain in Mexico” policy.

·         While White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre absurdly claims “it’s not like somebody walks over” the border, thousands of migrants walk across on a daily basis.

o   Illegal immigrants have confirmed this: “The border is open…everybody believes that the border is open. It’s open because we enter. We come in, free, no problem…We came illegally.”

·         New reports indicate that Biden’s CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus is “not in the game” and “operationally he’s not even in the conversation” as Biden’s border crisis worsens each month due to incompetence by the entire Biden administration.

o   Meanwhile, assaults against Border Patrol are rising and agents are left demoralized by the border crisis. 

o   The crisis has gotten so dire that Border Patrol now employs a “suicideologist” to assist agents who are struggling.

HOUSE AND SENATE DEMOCRATS ARE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE AS BIDEN FOR THIS CRISIS 

·         It’s not just Biden, Democrats across the nation are falling into line with Biden’s open border agenda.

o   Arizona Democrat Mark Kelly claims he has been focused on the border “since day one,” despite record levels of illegal immigration since he took office in 2021. 

o   Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto has refused to help secure the border, leading to an illegal immigrant charged in a mass stabbing in Las Vegas that left two dead and six injured in a tragedy that could have been avoided. 

o   Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan voted against border wall funding and amnesty for illegal immigrants while refusing to secure the border, leading to terrible consequences for Ohio families. 

o   Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman openly admitted, “sanctuary cities is another policy that I very much support” and absurdly claimedthat they “make everybody safer.”

o   Wisconsin Democrat Mandela Barnes called for illegal immigrants to receive “driver’s licenses” and “in-state college tuition.” 

·         A recent Monmouth University poll found 63 percent of Americans disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration.

o   A NewsNation poll found that Americans trust Republicans to solve the immigration crisis by seven points going into November’s election.

·         Republican leaders are done waiting for Biden and Democrats to act.

o   Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) announced that Arizona filled five gaps inthe border wall to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

o   Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) Operation Lone Star has led to more than 290,000 migrant apprehensions and nearly 326 million lethal doses of fentanyl seized in 18 months.

o   Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) announced that he will be deploying two National Guard units to the southern border to assist Border Patrol.