Border Patrol chief warns migrant crisis is a ‘national security threat’ and says his biggest fear is not the 1million apprehended this year – but the 140,000 ‘known got-aways’

The head of the US Border Patrol said the crisis at the southern border is a “national security threat” that “keeps him awake at night” in a new interview in which he detailed the danger posed by the millions of illegal migrants entering the country came in. country in recent years.

Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said during a call with Border Patrol CBS News that he is particularly concerned about the tens of thousands of illegal migrants who have not been apprehended and processed at the border on their way to the US.

“What keeps me awake at night is the 140,000 escapes,” Owens said — the number of migrants who have sneaked into the country undetected since October.

‘Why are they hiding? What do they have to hide? What do they bring in? What is their intention? Where do they come from?’ Owens explained that these are the USBP’s main concerns about the escapes, whose backgrounds and locations are virtually unknown to the government.

‘We simply don’t know the answers to those questions. These things represent to us the threat to our communities,” he said.

The U.S. Border Patrol is just days away from reaching one million migrant apprehensions in the 2024 fiscal year, which began last October for the U.S. government

Owens said his department is on track to record about two million apprehensions by the time the fiscal year ends in September.

The chief said “border security is a major part of national security,” and the illegal migrants being smuggled into the country are “exploiting a vulnerability” the country currently faces.

He said the migrants who have entered the U.S. this year have come from at least 160 different countries, some many continents away.

Routes from Europe and Asia lead to Panama’s Darien Gap, a popular jumping-off point for smugglers leading large groups of migrants north through Central America and eventually to the U.S., Owens said.

When asked, he added that the flow of illegal migrants into the US is “absolutely” driven by cartels, which “set the rules of engagement” at the border.

During the interview, the 25-year USBP veteran called for stricter immigration policies — something the Biden administration has struggled to achieve.

“I’m talking about prison time. “I am talking about expulsion from the country and banning you from coming back because you chose to come illegally rather than through the established legal routes that we have set out for you,” he said.

Despite taking that position, Owens also acknowledged that he believes the majority of migrants who enter the U.S. illegally are “good people” who “come over because they are either fleeing terrible conditions or are economic migrants seeking a better way of life. .’

“I wish they would choose the right way to enter our country and not start off on the wrong foot by breaking our laws,” he said.

U.S. National Guard personnel strengthen a fence covered in concertina wire near migrants at the border with Mexico on March 23, 2024

Another group of migrants entering Texas are trying to tear down the barbed wire between them and the US

President Joe Biden, center, surveys the southern border. He is accompanied here by USBP chief Jason Owens (center left) on February 29, 2024.

U.S. National Guard personnel strengthen a fence covered in concertina wire near migrants at the border with Mexico

In an aerial view, immigrants wait under an international bridge after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico and passing through coils of barbed wire on March 17, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas

The US expects to have to contend with a total number of at least 8 million asylum seekers and migrants who have crossed the southern border in September.

This staggering figure represents the patterned increase in border crossings over the past five years and underlines the challenges facing an immigration system that is both underfunded and outdated.

The vast majority of the nation’s 8 million people are now free to walk America’s streets, including 2 million “high priority” cases of career criminals seeking asylum.

The system is buckling under the weight of the rapid numbers of migrants pouring across the border, which reached a record high of 302,000 monthly crossings in December, according to the most recently released data.

The backlog has left millions of migrants currently in the U.S. unsure whether they will be allowed to stay or be deported — though the Biden administration has apparently taken a stance against deportation.

Migrants crossing the border often have to wait several years for a decision on their application. In the meantime, they are released into the country, where they build houses for themselves.

Recent data suggests that the backlog of migrants awaiting decisions has increased during President Joe Biden’s term in office, reflecting the difficulties his administration has faced in dealing with the unprecedented influx of migrants.

By the end of the 2023 budget year, more than six million migrants were registered in what officials call the “non-detainee role.”