Grand Canyon Times

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has still not offered a concrete plan to deal with the border crisis amid Acting Chief Patrol Agent Keith Hoops of the Swanton Sector recently revealing the escalating number of illegal crossings.

“MAJOR INCREASE!!!” Hoops wrote in an Aug. 2 Twitter post. “According to recent data, Swanton Sector’s border encounters have INCREASED over 92% from last year. Our #BorderPatrol Agents have worked tirelessly to keep America safe.”

The Swanton Sector includes counties in New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Although Kelly has expressed concern with the border crisis and challenged Biden to set forth a plan, critics view Kelly’s voting record as a sign that he does not prioritize strengthening border patrol. Fox News reported Kelly recently voted for the Inflation Reduction Act that brought on 87,000 new IRS Agents but gave no funding for additional border patrol agents.

CBP data shows encounters nationwide have reached over 2 million, which is already higher than the total for last fiscal year. The total number of encounters for the last fiscal year topped off at 1,956,519.

A June 2022 report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations states that the Biden administration has removed many of the policies set in motion by the Trump administration including the Migrant Protection Protocols, Asylum Cooperative Agreements and Prompt Asylum Claim Review which has eased travel restrictions and made Border Patrol’s job more difficult.

The border crisis has been characterized as a national security crisis as well as a humanitarian crisis. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), 4.9 million migrants have crossed the border illegally since President Joe Biden took office, with 3.4 million coming from the southern border. In July, border patrol agents saw 199,976 illegal migration crossings, which represents a 325% increase than under former President Donald Trump.

Migrants coming from the southern border are overwhelmingly from Mexico, although CBP data shows an increase in encounters from Central American countries such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. For example, in August 2020, there were 9,652 encounters with migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala compared to August 2021, the number jumped to 91,925 encounters.