CBP further included in the piece that 13 of the arrests it made were of people on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) terror watchlist – 12 from the southern border and one from the northern border. In Arizona alone, a record high of 17,500 illegal immigrants were arrested for unlawfully entering the southeast region of the state from Mexico between Nov. 24 and Nov. 30, up from approximately 15,650 the previous week. The agency expects that for fiscal year 2023, the encounters will exceed 2.4 million once the figures are finalized. CBP's forecast is to surpass 2022's record of 2.3 million.
Many of these are thanks to President Joe Biden's "weak" and "inviting" border policies. Earlier in December, Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona dropped a "truth bomb" on a YouTube video post, revealing that individuals crossing the border illegally in Arizona are promptly awarded a $5,000 gift card upon entering the United States, along with cell phones and costly plane tickets, all of which are being paid for by the American taxpayers.
"We see all these people coming across, mostly military-aged men coming from China, Africa and all over the world. When these folks come across and are processed, they are being given cell phones, plane tickets wherever they want to go in this country – maybe to a community near you – and $5,000 Visa cards," he said.
He also told the Epoch Times that he was in absolute shock when agents came forward. "I had known we handed out free cell phones and plane tickets, but to give out $5,000 Visa gift cards to people who break our laws and come into our country illegally when the average American is struggling to pay their bills is just tough to swallow," he said. The sheriff also pointed out that while families are finding it difficult to keep lights on and find a way to buy their kids a few presents for under the tree for Christmas, the American taxpayer has to watch as their hard-earned money is being taken from them and handed to people who have broken the law.
"It is infuriating. I know a lot of hard-working Americans who could use that money," he added. "People need to know the truth and let their representative lawmakers hear about it. This needs to end."
Lamb, who in April became the first Republican to announce his candidacy to challenge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Az) for the United States Senate, said that Biden can claim that they aren't directly paying for it because each dollar first goes from the government to a non-government institution like a charity before it is used to pay for the illegals. But "they are moving the money around and it all comes from the same place," he said.
According to the recent report from the House Committee on Homeland Security, the financial impact of illegal aliens, particularly those labeled as asylum seekers entering the U.S. unlawfully, is estimated to be a staggering $451 billion annually on the government. (Related: Border Patrol sector in Arizona STOPS POSTING UPDATES amid ongoing surge of illegals.)
Biden's solution to immigrants surge: prioritize illegals over legal crossers
To cope with an influx of thousands of migrants who have been camping out along the southern border wall, officials had to close the port to legal crossings to focus all their resources on the surge of unlawful crossings. Mexican-American families who work in Arizona but live just over the border in Sonoyta, Mexico, are scrambling to figure out how to get their children to school, commute to work, or care for parents they can no longer easily visit.
Twenty-six-year-old Stephanie Fierro, an employee at a roadside café serving enchiladas to American tourists passing through on their way to beach resorts in Mexico, thinks the measure is all wrong. Her husband, a Mexican citizen, lives on the other side. "We come and go every day," said Fierro, who is eight months pregnant with her second child. If the border stays closed, she said, she doubts she will be able to see her husband before her due date. "That's just wrong," she lamented.
Arizona government officials have also blasted the Biden administration's handling of the border crisis. Even Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs, who visited the area last week, said that the federal response had created an "unmitigated crisis." Hobbs, together with Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema wrote a letter to the White House, calling the the closure an "unacceptable outcome that further destabilizes our border, risks the safety of our communities and damages our economy." The governor said she would send in National Guard troops if the administration did not redirect federal resources to reopen the Lukeville crossing.
Meanwhile, Arizona Republicans, who called the closure a consequence of the White House's failed immigration policies, have criticized Hobbs for not already deploying the Guard.
Visit InvasionUSA.news to read more stories about the burgeoning number of illegal immigrants under Biden's poor border policies.
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