In another Friday evening news drop, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced 251,487 encounters with illegal border-crossers on the southwest border in December, an 11 percent increase from November and the highest number of encounters ever recorded in a month.
December’s encounters brought the number of total encounters in Fiscal Year 2023 (which began in October) to 717,660.
This is now the tenth month in a row of more than 200,000 migrant encounters at the southern border. CBP sources tell FOX there were over 70,000 known gotaways at the border in December as well. @FoxNews
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) January 20, 2023
Meanwhile, gotaways are the problem for one Texas sheriff who is calling for backup.
Kinney County—situated on the Texas-Mexico border between two legal ports of entry in Del Rio and Eagle Pass—is a rural ranching area, home to fewer than 1,500 citizens.
However, it has become a major smuggling route due to its location.
Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe wrote a letter to counties across the state as well as in neighboring states like Oklahoma and Arkansas, asking for manpower, equipment, or operators, as his local resources are “stretched to the breaking point to successfully maintain operations.”
“[The border crisis] has rendered every Texas county a border county,” said Coe. “We are painfully aware of the degrees to which illegal aliens will wreak havoc in our communities.”
Coe added:
Our homes are being broken into in the middle of the night. The local school district has been forced to erect military barricades around campus to protect students from smugglers evading law enforcement. Walking outside on our property after dark is no longer safe.
Residents of Kinney County no longer enjoy the comfort and safety of their own home. Words cannot adequately describe the conditions on the ground and the daily threats we have been forced to contend with.
Kinney County is one of 43 Texas counties to pass an invasion declaration, calling on the state to take additional measures as the federal government fails to protect Texas.
“The lawlessness and violence occurring on our border is endangering not only Kinney County, but the rest of Texas,” Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith told Texas Scorecard. “We can no longer sit back and wait for the federal or state government to save us. Counties across the state must join together to meet this threat on our border.”
The Center for Renewing America has laid out a step-by-step plan to stop the invasion at the Texas-Mexico border and secure the state using Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which says states shall not militarize “unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
Texans for Strong Borders is therefore calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a formal declaration of invasion “that would DENY ENTRY to would-be illegal aliens and DEPORT those who are already here.”
Concerned citizens can contact the governor’s office to voice their opinions on the issue.
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