U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Chief Raul Ortiz announced Tuesday that border patrol agents stopped over 1,000 migrants, dozens of pounds of narcotics, two sex offenders and more from coming into the country over Memorial Day weekend.
Ortiz tweeted out a list of statistics from the CBP over the holiday weekend as the border crisis has continued to get worse and migrants from a number of different countries have been caught trying to illegally enter the country. The Biden administration decided to end Title 42, a public health measure issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to rapidly expel migrants on public health grounds.
On May 20, a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration’s move to end Title 42 must be paused after a group of Republican attorneys general sued the administration.
The CBP chief said agents seized 43 lbs. of narcotics, which included cocaine, meth and fentanyl. Ortiz said agents apprehended 9 large groups, altogether 1,377 migrants. Agents also captured four migrants with warrants, two sex offenders and a 2nd-degree murder conviction.
Border agents encountered a record two million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. In fiscal 2021, they seized $3.31 billion in counterfeit goods, over 319,000 pounds of marijuana, over 190,000 pounds of methamphetamine and over 97,000 pounds of cocaine.
