CBP chief: Mexico is doing more than our own Congress to address the border crisis
Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan says Americans should be 'disgusted' by Congress' lack of action on the humanitarian and national security crisis.
Apprehensions at the Southern border remain at an "unacceptable" level despite vast improvements following the spring surge, acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan told “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.
“Right now, our apprehensions per day are still 1,400. Those numbers are unacceptable. We still have a lot of work to do,” he said, responding to the latest report on border apprehensions.
Morgan said the administration and the men and women of CBP and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement had "incredible success" stemming the spike back in May, when an influx of migrant families created a crisis at border detention facilities.
CBP SOUNDS ALARM OVER SURGE OF HARD DRUGS, WEAPONS, GANG MEMBERS AT BORDER DESPITE RECENT GAINS
Morgan said that Americans need to understand that the wall is not intended to stop law-abiding citizens or immigrants who have a merit-based claim.
“This is to stop illegal immigration and, just as important, to stop the drugs from pouring into this country, killing 68,000 people last year,” Morgan said.
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In fiscal 2019, there were a total of 1.1 million enforcement actions, a 68 percent increase from the previous year. Of those, 859,000 were apprehensions, an increase of 113 percent.
While the amount of drugs seized at the border in fiscal 2019 – 750,000 pounds – was lower than the prior year, officials said that was due to a big drop in marijuana seizures. Seizures of harder drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl all increased.
CBP seized about 83,000 pounds of methamphetamine, compared with 68,000 pounds in fiscal year 2018; 101,000 pounds of cocaine, compared with just under 60,000 the prior year; and 2,800 pounds of fentanyl, compared with 2,200 pounds the prior year.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
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