US Border Patrol agents last week arrested more than 67,000 illegal immigrants streaming into the country when video revealed a grotesque piece of wet clothing, drugs and other rubbish left by migrants dubbed “the mattress.”
Border reporter Todd Bensman documented the large piece of soggy clothing left behind and spoke to a Texas National Guardsman about why members of the agency colloquially refer to it as “the mattress.”
Bensman is heard saying that the pile contains feces, medicines, diapers and syringes in addition to abandoned clothing.
The Guardsman, who was heard but not seen in Bensman’s video, told him that the pile got its nickname because it’s soft, and there’s no way of knowing what you might find in it.
“It’s soft, but… there’s no telling what you’ll do with it if you fall into this,” said the agent of the pile on the bank across from Matamoros—a town in Mexico across from Brownsville.
Last Thursday, Title 42, the Trump-era immigration restriction designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was lifted. In the days leading up to the expiration of that policy, border agents saw a massive influx of migrants attempting to illegally enter the country just below the wire.
As a result, the number of illegal migrants crossing the border rose to nearly 70,000 last week, from 50,000 the week before.
Now Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims the lifting of Title 42 will reduce the number of migrants attempting to enter the country.
Prior to the end of the policy on Thursday night, more than 10,000 migrants a day were streaming across the border. Mayorkas said the number fell to 6,300 encounters on Friday and about 4,200 on Saturday.
“In the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has seen its encounters drop 50 percent from what we experienced earlier in the week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday,” he told the host of CNN’s “State of the Union’
‘It’s still early. We’re on day three. But we’ve been planning this transition for months and months.”
It remains to be seen whether the number will decrease, according to Mayorkas’ prediction, but on Friday, Raul Ortiz, chief of the United States Border Patrol, shared a tweet explaining what his officers had encountered over the past seven days.
Migrants wait to board a bus in downtown Brownsville, Texas to arrive at their final destination in the United States on Thursday, May 11, 2023, as Title 42 comes to an end
More than $83,000 in cash was seized by Border Guard agents last week
Migrants wait in line outside for a food delivery at a processing center in Brownsville, Texas, on May 11, 2023. The US will officially end the 40-month Covid-19 state of emergency on May 11, 2023, also rejecting the Title 42 Act, a tool that has been used to prevent millions of migrants from entering the country
Shocking Video Shows Massive Pile Of Garbage And Wet Clothes Dubbed “The Mattress” Thrown Away By Migrants Illegal Entering Brownsville
Nearly 500 pounds of drugs were seized by Border Guard agents last week
Last week, 56 pounds of Fentanyl was found and seized
Migrants walk to a bus station after being released from a respite center on the Texas-Mexico border, Thursday, May 11, 2023, in Brownsville, Texas
In this aerial photo taken on May 11, 2023, people push a float of migrants across the Rio Grande River into the United States from Mexico, in Brownsville, Texas
Ortiz wrote that three of his agents were attacked, $83,557 in cash was seized, nearly 500 pounds of drugs were seized, including 56 pounds of fentanyl, and seven firearms were taken.
Five sex offenders, four gang members, two felons and a person with five warrants against him were also apprehended.
In addition to 67,759 detentions, about 15,780 illegal migrants were counted as “breakaways,” a term for illegal immigrants who crossed the border by officers or on cameras but were not caught or processed by officials.
Statistics published by the US Customs and Border Protection show that there have been 257,910 nationwide encounters across all borders as of March this year.
The figures from March brought the total number of encounters this year to 1,544,087.
Current trends mean that the total number of crossings could break last year’s record of 2.76 million.
The latest numbers and reversal of Title 42 come after the Biden administration said they would set up migrant processing centers in Central and South America in an effort to expedite deportations and further deter illegal immigration to the US.
The first centers will be located in Colombia and Guatemala, two countries that have developed important stopping points for those wishing to travel to the border.
President Biden has also authorized Army reserves to move to the southern border as border patrol offices remain woefully understaffed to accommodate and process the number of migrants pouring across the border.
One of the loot of drugs recovered by Border Patrol in the last week of April
Title 42 allowed for the expedited expulsion of migrants from the US during the public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans and border hawks have been highly critical of the end of Title 42, claiming that there is no alternative to ensuring the southern border is not overrun and overwhelmed even more than it already is.
Internal projections show that migration at the southern border could increase by as much as 10,000 to 13,000 a day now that the policy has ended.
But so far, that’s not what Mayorkas says the agencies he oversees are experiencing.
“We have very clearly conveyed a very important message to those individuals who are thinking about arriving at our southern border: There is a legal, safe and orderly way to arrive in the United States,” he said during a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s This Week.
“That is through the paths that President Biden has expanded in an unprecedented way.
“And then there’s a consequence if someone doesn’t use those legal avenues, and that consequence is removal from the United States, deportation and a five-year ban on return, and possible criminal prosecution.”