Yuma, Arizona (azfamily) – Meetings at the southern borders are on a downward trend, but that doesn’t mean that border patrols aren’t busy.
The Arizona family spoke with the newly appointed US Border Patrol Chief of Justin De La Tore, Yumasector.
De La Torre is unfamiliar with the Yumasector, but he is the former vice chief of the Tucson sector and has served as the Border Patrol for 25 years.
“I started in the San Diego sector when I was 20. I started at Imperial Beach Station. I work in leadership positions in all sectors at various stations in the San Diego sector. Recently , I was the Deputy Chief Patrol Agent in the Tucson Sector,” Delatre said.
He said now they encountered around 40 people a day, illegally crossing the Umasector US border.
“We had a day when we were arresting 1,000 people a day, so that’s a noticeable difference,” Della Torre said.
He said the slowdown would allow them to bring more agents to the field and focus on deterring border crime.
“That’s important because now we give people smuggling drugs, those smuggling weapons, and those doing other things that present danger to our community. Because they’ll do it,” he said.
Recently, agents assisted Mexican officials discover drug tunnels south of the border fence in San Luis, Mexico.
De La Torre described it as an unfinished hole that could have ultimately been a security threat.
“It’s a good expression of us working with our counterparts in Mexico,” he said.
With only 10 days to Donald Trump’s appointment, things may look very different on the southern border in the coming weeks.
“We have to wait until January 20th. We are sure there will be policy decisions, priorities that we will focus on,” de la Torre said.
Trump has pledged to be the largest deportation operation in US history. However, deportation has already increased since Biden’s executive order in June, making it illegal to enter the United States outside of ports of entry.
Since Biden’s policy, de la Torre said more than 90% of the undocumented people they encounter will be deported.
“It allowed us to place more people in rapid removal and eliminate more people from countries that decided to enter illegal,” he said.
As the new chief, Delatre said he is focused on keeping the Yuma community safe.
“Our entire citizen ecosystem must work together to help not only government but all aspects of our community and all aspects of our city to work together to keep our towns safe.” He said.
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