BP Arrests Twice as Many Criminal Aliens in Six Months than All of Last Year

As the southern border crisis worsens, the latest U.S. Border Patrol figures show the agency has arrested more than twice as many criminal migrants in the first six months of fiscal year 2021 than it did in all of 2020. The fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30 and the overwhelmed frontline agency is getting slammed with an unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants as the Biden administration extends the welcome matt. Open border groups and their allies in the administration like to portray the migrants as impoverished victims of Latin American violence desperate for a better life in the melting pot to the north.

The data tells a different story. In the first half of this fiscal year, the Border Patrol apprehended 5,018 “criminal aliens” compared to 2,438 in all of fiscal year 2020. The agency defines criminal aliens as individuals who have been convicted of one or more crimes, whether in the U.S. or abroad, prior to interdiction by federal agents. “Records checks of available law enforcement databases following the apprehension of an alien may reveal a history of criminal conviction(s),” the agency explains. “That conviction information is recorded in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection database,” which eventually is released to the public. Of interesting note is that the data, which covers fiscal years 2016 through the present, show a steady decline in criminal alien arrests during the Trump administration after a peak of 12,842 arrests in 2016 under Obama. By 2017 it dipped to 8,531 then 6,698 in 2018 and 4,260 in 2019 before the low of 2,438 last year. At this rate, the Biden administration is set to bring the number of apprehended convicted migrants back up to a new high.

The criminal aliens busted by the Border Patrol in the last few months include 982 convicted of possessing illegal drugs or trafficking, 576 convicted of assault, battery, and domestic violence, 832 guilty of driving under the influence, 381 convicted of burglary, robbery, larceny, theft, and fraud, 265 sex offenders and 162 guilty of Illegal weapons possession, transport, and trafficking. The stats also reveal that 2,765 of the criminal aliens arrested in the first half of this fiscal year were previously deported after illegal entry or illegal reentry. Additionally, seizures of methamphetamine along the Mexican border increased an astounding 91% between February and March, according to Customs and Border Patrol figures. Heroin seizures went up 22% during the same period.

The situation along the Mexican border has reached a boiling point, with a record number of illegal immigrants arriving in just a few months thanks to outrageous Biden administration policies. The barrage is crushing frontline federal agents, among them veterans who tell Judicial Watch they have never seen anything like it. This includes an unparalleled number of minors, who under federal law must be transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The government classifies them as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and there are around 11,551—and counting—in HHS shelters and another 5,000 in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol, according to the government. The agency funds and oversees around 170 state-licensed care facilities to house the minors when they arrive from foreign countries south of the border.

Even sleepy little towns unaccustomed to the devastating impact large influxes have on bigger cities near major crossings are being impacted by the current storm of migrants. Among them is the usually tranquil Arizona town of Sonoita, population of about 800. Judicial Watch interviewed veteran ranchers and business owners in the aftermath of a series of crimes committed by illegal aliens and human smugglers (coyotes) that left residents shocked. In just a few days there were two home invasion robberies, and two local stores were burglarized by a group of illegal immigrants who had just been released into their community by the U.S. Border Patrol in the predawn hours. The problem is only getting worse, locals say, because federal agents are overwhelmed with the onslaught of migrants and more are being released into communities near the border.

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