OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:16 AM – Wednesday, December 20, 2023
On Monday this week, hundreds of asylum seekers illegally crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, setting a record for the most interactions with immigrants seeking to relocate in a single day at the southern border of the United States.
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This increase in recent weeks has left border guards both overworked and exasperated.
Fox News was informed by Customs and Border Protection sources that there were more than 12,600 interactions involving asylum seekers on Monday.
This excludes the hundreds of people who were left in the Del Rio Sector on Monday night waiting to be processed following a wave of asylum seekers entering Eagle Pass.
More than 1,600 illegal immigrants were detected at ports of entry, and additionally, more than 11,000 illegal immigrants were reported as being apprehended.
As of Tuesday morning, over 4,500 asylum seekers were being processed and transported by agents at the popular crossing site. Of these, over 5,300 were already in custody, and the facilities were 260% over capacity.
This indicates that agents are outnumbered 200-to-1 in the small border sector, which is handling more than 10,000 migrants in total.
Meanwhile, there were more than 3,000 interactions on Monday in the Tucson Sector in Arizona, where agents have also been overworked. National Guard assistance has been requested by Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.).
With 2.4 million people crossing the border in fiscal year 2023, the border experienced a record number of interactions.
Given that agents now consistently observe over 10,000 interactions every day, record or near-record figures were expected to be posted in November and December, even though migration historically slows down during those months.
Department of Homeland Security representatives testified before lawmakers this month, saying that approximately 670,000 illegal immigrants, or “gotaways,” eluded Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2023 and that they are releasing 5,000 of them every day to non-governmental organizations.
Furthermore, each month, up to 30,000 asylum seekers from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are coming in through the Biden administration’s expanded “lawful pathways.” These figures are in addition to the more than 1,600 migrants who are paroled in at ports of entry every day.
The government has claimed that although it is pursuing a policy of “broadening” those paths and toughening “consequences” for illegal entrance, it is also addressing a crisis that affects the entire hemisphere and requires more funds and legislation from Congress for immigration reform.
As part of the over $100 billion in supplemental funding demands, it has asked Congress for an additional $14 billion in financing for the border. However, Republicans have insisted on tighter restrictions regarding humanitarian parole and stricter asylum requirements.
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