U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended almost 50,000 illegal aliens in August, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show, a substantial increase from July and more evidence that neither the broiling heat of summer nor the Chinese Virus will stop the determined waves of illegal immigrants.
Almost all the illegals were caught trying to jump the border between ports of entry.
The numbers would almost certainly be higher absent the Asiatic pathogen, but despite the increase from July, the August total was still almost 21-percent less than last year. And numbers on the year are also significantly fewer than 2019, when the total was nearing one million crossings with a month to go.
As for the individuals apprehended, Mexico and Central America, as President Trump said in 2016, aren’t sending their best. Border agents routinely apprehend rapists, child molesters, and murderers, and they must now contend with illegals who carry the virus and will, if not stopped, disappear into the American heartland to spread it.
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Mostly Single Adults
As per usual, the largest category of those caught trying to slip past the Border Patrol are single adults: Agents collared 41,295 of the miscreants, CBP reported, a 21.2-percent increase from July. Total single adults for the year are 270,088.
Unaccompanied kids and members of “family units” numbered 5,569.
Illegals in all categories caught jumping the border were 46,864, 22-percent more than in July.
Total border jumpers for the year is 345,267.
Border Apprehensions — July / August / Year
• Unaccompanied Children — 2,429 / 2,982 / 26,786
• Family Units — 1,985 / 2,587 / 48,393
• Single Adults — 34,049 / 41,295 / 270,088
• Totals — 38,463 / 46,864 / 345,267
Inadmissibles, meaning illegals stopped at ports of entry, increased 14 percent from July to 2,730. As with illegals caught sneaking across the U.S.-Mexico frontier, single adults are by far the largest demographic. Agents have stopped 32,670.
Total apprehensions in both categories for the month were 49,594, a 21.4-percent jump over July, a figure that brings total apprehension for the year to 399,770.
Inadmissibles — July / August / Year
• Unaccompanied Alien Children — 83 / 106 / 2,556
• Family Units — 61 / 106 / 18,678
• Single Adults —2,183 / 2,418 / 32,670
• Accompanied Minor Child — 68 / 100 / 599
Totals — 2,395 / 2,730 / 54,503
Totals for Both Categories — 40,858 / 49,594 / 399,770
If there’s a bright spot in the latest numbers, it’s that fiscal 2020’s total apprehensions don’t come close to the mega-city of illegals who crossed last year.
August’s 49,594 is 21-percent fewer than last year, while the total for 11 months for the fiscal year, which ends September 30, is 58-percent lower than last year.
2019 / 2020
October — 60,781 / 45,143
November — 62,469 / 42,643
December — 60,794 / 40,568
January — 58,317 / 36,581
February — 76,545 / 36,681
March — 103,731 / 34,442
April — 109,415 / 17,086
May — 144,116 / 23,194
June — 104,311 / 32,980
July — 81,777 / 40,858
August — 62,707 / 49,594
Totals — 924,963 / 399,770
Murderer, Sex-offender, Other Felons Caught
Within those totals are, of course, thousands of rapists, child molesters, and murderers, as CBP reported last week.
On September 1, agents with the border station in Eagle Pass, Texas, collared a 33-year-old Mexican who was convicted of second-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, Florida. He was deported in 2011, but just couldn’t resist re-entering the country, his conviction and the Chinese Virus regardless.
Now he faces 20 years in prison for re-entering the country as a convicted felon.
On August 30, agents at Eagle Pass nabbed a child molester who was convicted in 2010 and deported. He, too, faces 20 years in prison.
Agents in the El Paso border sector arrested 17 felons this past month, three of whom were gang members, CBP reported.
The felonies for which the illegals were convicted include child molesting, drug trafficking, rape, and murder.
The illegals were convicted in Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
Catching Covid Carriers
CBP is also, of course, apprehending illegals infected with the Chinese Virus. Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies reported in August that CBP launched a major but largely unreported effort to apprehend them.
Reported Bensman:
The new CBP operation confirms a phenomenon that senior government officials, the media, and pandemic experts have studiously avoided addressing publicly for weeks about sharp Covid spikes in border states like Texas: that significant numbers of illegal immigrants crossing to work in the country’s black market economy are sick with Covid-19. Border Patrol agents have taken some seriously sick Mexican illegal migrants to area hospitals but, for the most part, have returned about 90 percent of those apprehended.
On August 6, acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters that illegals are tenaciously trying to avoid capture. “They’re running. They’re fighting. They’re doing everything that they can to avoid apprehension,” he said. “Even though some of the illegal aliens know, or highly suspect, that they have Covid … they’re still coming. They’re exposing everyone they come in contact with during their journey, as they illegally try to enter this country.”
Image: Thinkstock
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.