Top Border Patrol sector chiefs expressed concern about the number of illegal immigrants evading detection at the southern border, saying the potential threat coming across the border “keeps us up at night” during interviews with the House Homeland Security Committee throughout the year.
Fox News Digital obtained excerpts from transcripts of interviews with the committee taken during the year as part of its work on the ongoing migrant crisis, which has set multiple records this year.
Then-Chief Patrol Agent Jason Owens, now head of the Border Patrol, told lawmakers that a major concern for the agency is the impact the humanitarian crisis has on the border security mission.
Here is what “known gotaways” look like on camera when TCOs exploit BP agents forced to leave miles of open border… In Eagle Pass, this week amid the unprecedented surge of give-ups, armed men cross into the US without any enforcement to stop it.
Photos below:
The Texas Rangers drone captured images of the smuggler in the river near Eagle Pass:
Here’s why, record numbers pouring over the border:
NEW: Lukeville, AZ right now. Only 2 Border Patrol agents here to move this mass of hundreds of illegal immigrants from around the world to a processing area. We continue to see enormous numbers of men from Africa who tell us they are going to sanctuary cities around the US. pic.twitter.com/zTSVLJFTGp
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 22, 2023
There have been increased concerns about gotaways given the ongoing migrant crisis, where agents are being diverted to processing duties rather than out in the field. In some areas, agents have been outnumbered 200:1 by migrants.
