U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 101,535 illegal immigrants along the nation’s southern border in February, with an additional 26,000 people who were not caught.
Jaeson Jones, a former Texas Department of Public Safety captain, reported the provisional data from Customs and Border Protection.
The February numbers mark a shocking spike over February 2020, when CBP caught fewer than 37,000 illegal immigrants.
Jones also reported many of the recent immigrants are unaccompanied minors who cannot be returned to a country except for Mexico.
As of Feb. 28, 7,700 unaccompanied minors were housed in facilities by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The White House has continued to claim the skyrocketing immigration numbers do not indicate a crisis.
In contrast, the Department of Homeland Security sent a March 8 email seeking volunteers to assist agencies with the surge at the border.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration is continuing to prioritize “humanity,” which is why the policy of accepting unaccompanied migrants under 18 was first introduced.
Nonetheless, she added, it is “working on putting in place policies that can address what we’re seeing.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, held a press conference near the southern border on March 9, where he blamed Biden’s immigration policies for the surge.
Abbott said those arrested by Border Patrol since Jan. 1 included more than 800 criminals, with 78 sex offenders and 62 gang members.
“The Biden Administration has created a crisis at our southern border through open border policies that give the green light to dangerous cartels and other criminal activity,” he said in a statement.
“Border security is the federal government’s responsibility, but the State of Texas will not allow the administration’s failures to endanger the lives of innocent Texans,” he continued. “Instead, Texas is stepping up to fill the gaps left open by the federal government to secure the border, apprehend dangerous criminals, and keep Texans safe.”
Abbott has also launched Operation Lone Star across Texas, deploying National Guard members and additional law enforcement to protect the state’s southern border.
