As concerns over the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border grows, the National Sheriffs Association is calling on the Biden administration to secure the border and protect Americans.
Among the dangers that come along with the thousands of illegal border crossings that occur every month, which include human trafficking, drug smuggling, potential terrorism, death at the hands of coyotes, bandits, and harsh weather, significantly complicating the challenges border patrol and law enforcement face is the COVID-19 pandemic, the association said in a draft border security resolution set for a vote at a meeting in Arizona in June, according to The Washington Examiner.
“We are already seeing strains to the public health system of border communities. The suspension of deportations has led to the release of undocumented persons into border communities. We then have an affirmative responsibility to provide medical care for them if they are infected with COVID,” the statement reads. “This at a time when our communities are already grappling with this public health emergency and desperately trying to roll out the vaccines. We now face a serious potential public health crisis along the border.”
“In any other construct, infection rates that high would be cause for alarm by public health officials. Yet, we are currently engaging in policies that have potentially opened, rather than restricted, undocumented traffic into the U.S.,” the sheriffs said in the resolution.
In February, Border Patrol apprehended over 100,000 illegal immigrants at the southern border, and about 26,000 evaded capture, according to Jaeson Jones, a former Texas Department of Public Safety captain who received the provisional Border Patrol data from internal sources, which was reviewed by The Epoch Times.
Many of those crossing now are unaccompanied minors (9,457 in February), who are meant to be passed to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) within 72 hours, but the sheer number of minors has overwhelmed the system.
HHS has just opened a second facility for the burgeoning number of minors.
When asked what he thought was driving the trend, Miller said, “There’s certainly economic instability in the region that’s unparalleled.”
“All you have to do is look at the pandemic … the COVID rate infections down in South and Central America,” he said. “We recently had a hurricane, continued violence, unemployment. So if you put all those issues together, … you’re going to see folks looking for a better way of life.”
