PHOENIX — Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels on Tuesday dispelled the idea that the border crisis is abating, suggested by a recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report.
CBP announces arrest of illegal immigrant fell more than half in the first two weeks of January. But the number of people pouring across the border is breaking records.
“After Christmas, temperatures cooled down a little bit for about a week or two,” Dannels said. KTAR News 92.3 FM's Arizona Morning News. “But to put it in perspective, in the last three weeks, we have seized over 220 pounds of fentanyl in Cochise County alone, which translates to thousands of pills going into the community. ”
December 2023 was the busiest month in U.S. history for illegal border crossings.That same month, a Border Patrol agent was arrested. 249,785 people It's on the Mexican border.
This was a 31% increase from November's 191,112 cases. The number of arrests in December last year broke the previous record of 222,018 arrests set in December 2022.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema said she is leading negotiations on a border agreement to crack down on a surge in illegal border crossings.
“My biggest concern is that this bill is attached to the Ukraine bill and other bills,” Dannels said, adding that border issues should be the only priority. “We're in a terrible place right now…I mean, we've allowed this to go too far. It's a huge mistake.”
Cochise County Sheriff says illegal border crossings remain high
Dannels said 685 buses full of migrants have arrived in his jurisdiction since May 2023.
“That's 35,000 people,” he said, adding that his county's population is about 126,000. “About a third of the population was released within six or seven months.”
Cochise County has a population of about 126,000 people, so the influx of immigrants makes up about 33% of the population, Dannels added.
He said state resources and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are assisting with their movement to prevent them from roaming the county's streets.
“Over the past two years, we've closed with 2,884 people in prison for border crimes,” Dannels said.
It added that there were also 414 chases and 556 smuggling arrests.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
