A flood of migrants seeking to cross the U.S. southern border has led to an increases in apprehensions with nearly 1 million migrants being apprehended since the current fiscal year began in October 2021, according to the chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
"Probably in the next two or three days we’ll get over a million encounters or apprehensions along the southwest border," CBP Chief Raul Ortiz said on Tuesday at a border security conference in San Antonio, Fox News reported.
Ortiz noted they have encountered migrants from 157 countries, and that "every sector is busier than they were back in '21." There were 164,973 migrant encounters in February, up significantly from 101,099 in February 2021. According to Fox News, March's numbers have not yet been released but are expected to eclipse the February numbers.
On March 25, Ortiz told CNN he was preparing his organization for as many as 8,000 people to be apprehended daily in the coming two to three months. He noted that they have been dealing with significantly more volume than during the previous White House administration.
"We're managing a flow that's significant," Ortiz told CNN. "As I get to, you know, 7,000 to 7,500 a day average, that's going to put additional strain."
According to previous Reuters' reporting, the increase in migrants at the border is due to profiteering by Mexican cartels. Many cartels in Mexico that previously stole oil and sold drugs are shifting to a new line of work — human trafficking. Mexico is an origin, transit and destination country for the sex trafficking industry, and has recently seen an uptick in gangs shifting to dealing in people. Cartels that have shifted to the human trafficking industry include the oil pipeline tapping and Guanajuato-based Santa Rosa de Lima gang, as well as the Mexico City Tepito Union drug gang.
The New York Post reported that the Latin American branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking In Women conducted a study that estimates that 60% of Latin American children "who set out to cross the border alone or with smugglers have been caught by the cartels and are being abused in child pornography or drug trafficking."