America’s coronavirus reopening has also meant a surge of smuggling at the southern border, with a significant rise in both illegal immigrants and drugs being nabbed in May, according to the latest data Friday from Homeland Security.
Customs and Border Protection said its agents and officers encountered 23,118 unauthorized migrants last month, up from fewer than 17,000 in April — an increase of 38%.
CBP also doubled its seizures of cocaine in May, and methamphetamine, marijuana and fentanyl seizures rose as well.
Acting CBP chief Mark Morgan said those are all reasons to push forward with President Trump’s border wall.
“Wherever we have built a new border wall system, drug and human smuggling activities have decreased,” he said.
The border is still under a public health order allowing most illegal immigrants to be quickly expelled from the country.
According to CBP, 96% of those nabbed were processed in under two hours, which the agency said has helped reduce the amount of contact time, cutting risks of COVID-19 spread.
The 23,000 people nabbed, while ticking back up, is a massive improvement compared to a year ago, when more than 144,000 illegal immigrants were encountered. That included an all-time record for parents and children, with more than 100,000 nabbed.
