It’s no recent revelation that we have an immense crisis at our Southern Border. In the Arizona sectors, we continue to see apprehensions of convicted rapists, human smuggling events, millions of dollars of methamphetamine, and violent criminals.

In September of 2023, we saw an alarming 269,735 migrant encounters at the southern border. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documented September as the highest month on record for encounters, until last month, when CBP sources told Fox News that the number of encounters in December alone surpassed 302,000 migrants between various ports of entries for the first time ever. Since the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, over 785,000 migrant encounters have been recorded, setting the record for the highest number of encounters ever documented in a quarter. The crisis at our border is worsening at an alarming rate. 

For Fiscal Year 2023, the total for the entire year was around 2.4 million migrant encounters, according to the House Homeland Security Committee. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources have stated that this sets the record for the earliest this number of border apprehensions has ever been recorded.  As of February, the number of illegal migrants that have been admitted into our country is more than triple the size of Arizona’s first congressional district.

At one point, CBS announced that Arizona was the busiest sector for illegal border crossings. The influx was facilitated by human smuggling operations. The Tucson and San Diego sectors even accounted for 60% of the entirety of migrant apprehensions during the ongoing crisis.

If the hundreds of thousands of illegal drugs and substances coming into our country illegally aren’t enough for the Biden Administration to enact critical legislation to address our ongoing border crisis, maybe the apprehension of an illegal Lebanese migrant directly associated with the Hezbollah terrorist group will. After his arrest, the detained terror suspect even admitted his intention was to enter the United States illegally to “make a bomb in the U.S.“. Let’s not forget when FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in front of Congress, warning public officials of the significant increase of the risk of terrorism and cited various migrant smuggling instances that are tied terrorist organizations.

U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) Chief Jason Owens declared the crisis at the southern border a “national security threat.” The current total sits at over 1.2 million apprehended migrants. USBP anticipates over two million migrant apprehensions for the third consecutive year by the time the current fiscal year ends on September 30.

The Pew Research Center has released a new report showing 73% of Democrats give the Biden administration a negative review on how it’s handling the border crisis. That is the highest disapproval rating the administration has received since President Biden assumed office. Even other prominent Democrats have seen the toll that the crisis has taken directly on their citizens. NYC Mayor Eric Adams previously announced significant changes to the city’s “Right to Shelter” law, mandating that adult migrants are limited to no more than 30 days of housing services once they enter into the city’s aid system.

Customs & Border Protection (CBP) has a smartphone application, established by the Biden Administration, that millions of migrants have utilized to gain asylum into the United States via the Southern Border. The app, ‘CBP One’, allows migrants to request appointments in hopes of being processed by U.S. immigration authorities at an official border crossing. Approximately 1,450 appointments are released daily, giving migrants a slim chance at being granted legal access into the country. This evidently leads them to cross into the U.S. illegally and bypassing the CBP One system entirely. The Cato Institute just released a briefing document stating that there were 34.7 million green card applications at the start of Fiscal Year 2024. Today, 636,600 migrants have used CBP One app appointments at ports of entry.

According to sources from Customs and Border Protection, there have been more apprehensions of Chinese nationals in the past Fiscal Year alone than there were during all of 2021 along the entire southern border. CBP sources even show that there have been more migrants apprehended from China than from Mexico since the start of FY24. Some migrants come from Turkey, Afghanistan, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Brazil, and Kyrgyzstan. That’s just to name a few of the countries. 

The Darien Gap, also known to be the most dangerous spot in Central America overrun by cartels, was confirmed by documents provided by CBP to be a common pathway for migrants who are knowingly not asylum seekers. Just in this fiscal year alone, the U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended over 360 migrants who are known to be gang affiliates.

Even though U.S. Customs and Border Protection only reported a “tiny fraction” of migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally have criminal records in the U.S. or other countries, hardworking Americans deserve to feel safe. Our border patrol agents and law enforcement officers must work to apprehend all convicted and would-be criminals attempting to enter the country. I applaud Chief Owens for admitting there needs to be tougher policies at the border, and I am closely monitoring to see how he works with the Biden administration to ensure that further safeguards are put in place.  

As I share this information with you, I remain baffled at how the Biden administration has managed to further neglect this evident and overwhelming crisis. This is not about partisan politics, and it never should have been. I will continue to urge the Administration to prioritize American citizens over individuals who have expressed malintent when entering the country illegally.