LUKEVILLE, Arizona — As Breitbart Texas observed the Arizona border this week, migrant groups continued to cross into the United States from a host of countries — including some considered by the DHS to be of special interest due to the prevalence of terrorism in that country or hostility to the United States. According to a CBP report reviewed by Breitbart Texas, the arrest of migrants from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and Egypt at the southwest border rose by as much as 6,000 percent compared to 2022 statistics kept by CBP.
Nearly 14,000 citizens of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania were apprehended by Border Patrol agents at the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year. In 2022, during the same time frame, only 228 encounters of Mauritanian citizens were recorded. This represents an increase of more than 6,000 percent.
Migrants from Many Nations Arrive at Arizona Border Crossing. (Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
In a July U.S. State Department travel warning, Mauritania is considered unsafe and warns U.S. citizens to reconsider travel to Mauritania due to crime and terrorism. The State Department offers the following summary of Mauritania within the warning.
Country Summary: Violent crimes, such as mugging, armed robbery, and assault, are common. Local police lack the resources to respond effectively to serious crimes. Terrorists may attack with little or no warning, targeting places frequented by Westerners.
The arrest of citizens of Egypt at the southwest border also increased by more than 1,400 percent since the beginning of this fiscal year on October 1, 2022. Nearly 3,000 migrants from Egypt have been arrested versus just over 200 in the same time frame in 2022.
Several other countries whose citizens are considered Special Interest Migrants have also risen significantly as well. Arrests of Afghanistan nationals has risen by more than 500 percent since October as well. As of August, more than 5,000 Afghan nationals have been arrested by the Border Patrol along the southwest border. During the same time frame in 2022, less than 600 Afghan nationals were encountered by the Border Patrol.
A source within the Border Patrol, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the language barrier and the overwhelming surge of migrants at the border makes any intelligence debrief of the migrants from these countries extremely difficult.
“With thousands of migrants crossing daily, we don’t have time to figure out who these people are, where they are going, or what their intentions for coming into the country are with any degree of accuracy; most are out the door in a few days,” the source lamented.
In Lukeville, Arizona, now one of the busiest migrant crossings in the country, most of the daily migrant encounters involve migrants from outside the hemisphere and account for a significant portion of the special interest migrant arrests. In one large group of migrants arrested by the Border Patrol on Tuesday, less than 50 migrants in one single group of more than 300 were able to speak Spanish or English.
The migrants within the large group were mostly adult male citizens of several African nations, India, Pakistan, Peru, and Ecuador. According to the Border Patrol agents who spoke to Breitbart Texas, most of the group will be released to pursue asylum claims within the United States once the arduous task of processing the migrants is completed.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.