....continued
A migrant arriving in New York City flashes a thumbs-up at bystanders and media at Port Authority
New monthly data, out on Monday, showed that so far this fiscal year 1.82 million people have been apprehended. Fox reported that that figure had surpassed two million this week.
The last fiscal year - from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021 - saw 1.66 million arrivals: in itself a record. The CBP records date back to 2000.
CBP
sources told Fox News that the migrant encounters hit 2,001,034 this weekend. The agency released figures migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, a second straight monthly decline.
But flows were still unusually high, particularly among nationalities less affected by Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that denies migrants legal rights to seek asylum on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19.
In theory, Title 42 applies to all nationalities but costs, diplomatic relations and others considerations usually dictate who is expelled under the public health authority.
U.S. authorities stopped migrants 199,976 times in July, down 3.8% from 207,933 in June and down 6.8% from 213,593% in July 2021, Customs and Border Protection said.
'While the encounter numbers remain high, this is a positive trend and the first two-month drop since October 2021,' said Commissioner Chris Magnus.
Authorities stopped Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and El Salvadorans less in July than in June. Mexico has agreed to take people from all those countries who are expelled under Title 42, a relatively easy task for Border Patrol agents due to Mexico's proximity.
People from countries more likely to be released in the U.S. on humanitarian parole or with notices to appear in immigration court were stopped more often. Border Patrol agents stopped Venezuelans 17,603 times in July, up 34% from June and nearly triple from July 2021.
Cubans were stopped 20,080 times by Border Patrol agents, up 25% from June and nearly six times from June 2021. Colombians were also stopped more often.
Del Rio, Texas, was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings among the Border Patrol's nine sectors on the Mexico border, with agents stopping migrants 49,563 times in July. Texas' Rio Grande Valley, which had long been the busiest, was a distant second with 35,180 stops.
At this point in Fiscal Year 2021, encounter figures were at 1,277,177 – more than 700,000 less than the same point this year. Meanwhile, buses full of migrants continue to offload at New York City's Port Authority on Wednesday.
Miguel Castro, Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs for the city, received the migrants arriving from Texas on Wednesday morning.
Trump-era CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said it's no surprise that crossings have now reached a yearly record high, claiming that the 'Biden Administration has handed over operational control of our southern border to the cartels.'
'They have done this by purposefully dismantling every meaningful and effective border security measure in place,' Morgan added. This includes Biden canceling construction of former President Donald Trump's southern border wall the day he took office.
Meanwhile,
New York City is planning on renting a further 5,000 hotel rooms to accommodate the migrants arriving on buses in the city from
Texas and
Arizona. The 5,000 rooms will come on top of the 1,000 rooms the city announced they would rent last week.
A solicitation letter was sent on Wednesday by the Department of Social Services, detailing the request. No cost was given, and they did not specify which hotels they planned to use.
Some New Yorkers reacted with anger to the news of the additional 5,000 hotel rooms.
'NYC is looking for an extra 5,000 hotel rooms to house bused in migrants. So now we have illegal immigrants instead of tourists in our hotels,' tweeted Andrea Catsimatidis, chair of the Manhattan Republican Party.
'Imagine that impact on our economy, crime, and tax dollars.'
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has resorted to creating a barrier out of shipping containers along the border with Mexico to help curtail migrants from illegally entering the U.S. at crossings in his state.
So far, Abbott has sent at least 6,000 migrants to Washington, D.C. and Ducey has sent at least 1,000 migrants out of his state by bus to the nation's capital.
NYC Mayor Adams and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser have condemned Abbott's efforts, which were started in mid-April and led to Ducey launching the same program a month later - bussing migrants from his state to sanctuary cities.
For months, the efforts were focused on the nation's capital in an attempt to bring to the doorstep of lawmakers the southern border crisis.
But after Bowser called the few thousands migrants in D.C. a humanitarian crisis, Abbott saw the effectiveness of the campaign. At that point he started sending migrants to New York as well.
Republicans claim that Biden's failure to visit the southern border since taking office last year proves that he does not take the migration crisis seriously and is not working hard enough to address the humanitarian issues facing border communities.
'Joe Biden has visited Delaware nearly 50 times since entering the Oval Office,' Representative Andy Biggs tweeted on Wednesday.
'He has yet to visit the southern border ONCE in his entire life.' 'He is not a leader,' the Arizona congressman added.
Pennsylvania Representative Guy Reschenthaler noted in a Wednesday tweet: 'President Biden has been in office for 574 days. He hasn't made a single trip to our southern border.'
Biden put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of the southern border crisis shortly after taking office, but her office immediately rebranded the 'border czar' title to clarify that she was address 'root causes' of migration in Northern Triangle countries.
Images have emerged from spots along the southern border where several hundred and sometimes thousands of migrants crossed in the span of just 24 hours.
At an unrelated press conference on Monday, Mayor Adams said that New York would 'treat these people with dignity' that Texas has failed to do
Adams is seen at the Port Authority bus terminal in midtown Manhattan on August 6, handing out supplies to the new arrivals
The Row, a $400-a-night luxury hotel based near tourist-packed Times Square, will become a shelter for as many as 600 migrant families. It is not clear if one floor will be made available or if they will be across the property
The plush hotel is understood to be working with Mayor Adams to convert part of the hotel, where rooms can cost more than $400-a-night, into an intake center
A security guard at Row NYC told DailyMail.com that migrants will be moved to rooms such as this one
Fox News has released images from Eagle Pass, Texas where groups of hundreds of migrants are rounded up after traversing across the Rio Grande River in a dangerous journey that many times leads to immediate return.
In other cases, however, migrants' asylum claims are heard out and they are released into the U.S. to await immigration proceedings.
But officials warn that thousands of migrants never show up for their court dates and disappear into the country, remaining undocumented.
There are still two months left in FY2022, and if encounters continue at their current rate, CBP could be on track for nearly 2.5 million apprehensions in one year – far surpassing any previous year.
Morgan, who served as CBP chief from July 5, 2019 until Trump left office on January 20, 2021, said the continuously record-breaking migration figures are a direct reflection on failures of the Biden administration.
'In just over 18 months Biden's open border agenda, shepherded-in by it's chief architect [DHS] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas, has resulted in more than 4.9 million migrants illegally entering our southern border - 4 million encounters and nearing one million got aways who evaded apprehension,' Morgan told DailyMail.com
'With more than three million now residing in the U.S., the Biden administration has added the equivalent of the entire population of the state South Carolina.'
He called the situation at the southern border a 'self-inflicted crisis' and said: 'We've had 17 straight months of more than 150,000 apprehensions.
'CBP has encountered more illegal aliens on the Terrorist Screening Data base this FY than the past 5 years combined. With more than 900,000+ known got-aways the reality is the next threat could already be in the U.S.,' Morgan concluded.
At 'least 2 MILLION have now crossed' the southern border this year
Another record was set over the weekend when Customs and Border Protection's migrant encounter tracker for Fiscal Year 2022 surpassed the 2 million mark for the first time in U.S. history, according to reports.
CBP sources told Fox News that the migrant encounters hit 2,001,034 this weekend, with the majority of the fourth quarter left to go.
It comes after the agency released figures for July that showed encounters reaching below 200,000 for the first month since February. It was also the second consecutive month that saw a decline in encounters following four months in a row of increases.
At this point in Fiscal Year 2021, encounter figures were at 1,277,177 – more than 700,000 less than the same point this year.
Meanwhile, buses full of migrants continue to offload at New York City's Port Authority on Wednesday as Texas Governor Greg Abbott goes forward with an initiative sending illegal immigrants out of his state to major U.S. cities.
Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Miguel Castro received the migrants arriving in the Big Apple from Texas on Wednesday morning.
Trump-era CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said it's no surprise that crossings have now reached a yearly record high, claiming that the 'Biden Administration has handed over operational control of our southern border to the cartels.'
'They have done this by purposefully dismantling every meaningful and effective border security measure in place,' Morgan added.
New York City will spend millions renting another FIVE THOUSAND hotel rooms for illegal migrants
New York City is planning on renting a further 5,000 hotel rooms to accommodate the migrants arriving on buses in the city from Texas and Arizona, as the city struggles to house the new arrivals.
The 5,000 rooms will come on top of the 1,000 rooms the city announced they would rent last week.
A solicitation letter was sent on Wednesday by the Department of Social Services, detailing the request.
No cost was given, and they did not specify which hotels they planned to use.
Some New Yorkers reacted with anger to the news of the additional 5,000 hotel rooms.
'NYC is looking for an extra 5,000 hotel rooms to house bused in migrants. So now we have illegal immigrants instead of tourists in our hotels,' tweeted Andrea Catsimatidis, chair of the Manhattan Republican Party.
'Imagine that impact on our economy, crime, and tax dollars.'
