Living at the U-S southern border as the crisis intensifies
I talk exclusively with a man who is dealing with the massive influx of illegal migrants in his community.
Imagine what it is like living at the U.S. southern border. I talked to Del Rio, Texas resident Jaime Aguilar who told me what is happening at the border is an invasion and a national security threat.
The number of migrants apprehended by U.S. immigration agents after crossing the southern border illegally has soared to near-record levels in September, posing a major test to the Biden administration's migration strategy, unpublished federal figures obtained by CBS News show.
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Border Patrol agents apprehended roughly 140,000 migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization during the first 20 days of September, an average of about 6,900 each day, according to the internal agency data. That represents a 60% increase from the daily average of 4,300 in July.
I talked exclusively with Aguilar about what it’s like living in the middle of all of this:
Watch my exclusive interview below:
The agency is on track to record more than 210,000 migrant apprehensions this month, the highest level since December and May 2022, when Border Patrol reported over 220,000 apprehensions, the current all-time monthly highs. During those record-setting months, Border Patrol apprehended more than 7,000 migrants each day, a level September's average is close to matching.
Experts say the U.S. lacks the capacity to detain and process migrants at the border, often making it impossible for the administration to carry out the harsh penalties it announced in May.
As a result, some asylum seekers who cross illegally are being released into the U.S. with a future court date, rather than being deported - becoming success stories repeated back to migrants still en route.
"The (Biden administration) hit on a smart strategy, but they don't have the resources or capacity to implement it," said Andrew Selee, head of the Migration Policy Institute.