From October 1 through February 28, border agents apprehended almost 400,000 illegals at the southern border of the United States with Mexico.
But that figure for the fiscal year says nothing about the number of illegals whom border agents didn’t apprehend; i.e., “got-aways” now hiding somewhere in the heartland.
That number, Breitbart reported yesterday, is now more than 130,000. The illegals are disappearing into the country because the Border Patrol must waste manpower on activities unrelated to border security.
Meanwhile, another datum suggests how dangerous some of 130,000 could be. Axios reports that almost 3,000 unaccompanied minors have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past year.
900 Illegals Per Day
Writing for Breitbart, Randy Clark, a former border official, reported that 900 migrants a day “eluded apprehension nationwide over the last two weeks.”
Just two weeks ago, Clark reported that so-called got-aways had surpassed 118,000 for the fiscal year. “A source now reports the total exceeds 130,000,” he reported:
The metric is usually not released by DHS. It is achieved by counting illegal immigrants who ultimately escape Border Patrol apprehension after being observed by aircraft platforms and camera systems. In addition, Border Patrol agents use traditional sign-cutting techniques to identify footprints where cameras do not capture the crossing. “That’s where it gets tricky,” says one agent who did not wish to be identified. “On a small trail, dozens can walk all over each other’s footprints, so you just do your best. Often, they’ll glue carpet to the soles of their shoes.”
Sources say the got-away count usually fails to truly reflect reality and comes up short. This comes as CBP reports its highest apprehension totals since 2006.
Those totals are truly staggering: 100,441 during February alone; 396,958 October 1 through the end of last month.
The misallocation of resources has occurred, Clark reported, because “Border Patrol agents are redirected to humanitarian aid to unaccompanied minors and staff newly opened facilities, the border itself is undermanned, according to the source. Homeland Security is focused strictly on the optics of the border and not the underlying vulnerabilities, the source complains.”
In other words, so many agents are babysitting that they can’t do the job for which they were hired: apprehending illegals who have jumped the border.
As The New American reported in April 2019, a month before the number of apprehensions peaked at 144,116, border agents spent tens of thousands of hours providing illegals with medical assistance and transportation to medical facilities.
The illegals, of course, routinely spread disease to border agents.
Since 2016, taxpayers have spent more than $1 billion providing medical care to illegals.
China Virus Rampant Among Kids
That total won’t go down, most likely, given that so many illegals have the coronavirus, and might well be spreading it to Americans, including border agents.
“Nearly 2,900 unaccompanied minors tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival at U.S. government shelters over the past year — including around 300 currently in the system — a Department of Health and Human Services official tells Axios,” the website reported.
Some 7.4 percent of tests are positive, HHS data show, but the rate at a detention camp at Carrizo Springs, Texas, is even higher: 10 percent, the website reported.
Youth are tested upon arrival, Weber said, and those who test positive are taken to a negative-pressure medical isolation bed onsite and get around-the-clock care. Carrizo Springs has 180 nurses, doctors, and medical personnel, and 12 epidemiologists and two public-health experts.
Since this time last year, authorities tested 39,932 kids, 2,897 of whom were positive and 2,578 of whom have recovered. “Currently, 319 unaccompanied children are in medical isolation, while government data obtained by Axios puts the current number of kids in HHS shelters at more than 11,500,” the website reported.
Those totals of virus carriers don’t include adults.
Biden’s immigration lieutenants admit they have released virus carriers to go wherever they wish on buses and planes.