Tucson Sector: A Case Study in Border Patrol Fentanyl Seizures
Agents there are dealing with fewer migrants, and thus able to stop more drugs
By Andrew R. Arthur on January 17, 2023
There is a curious phenomenon playing out at the Southwest border, as Tucson — one of the slower Border Patrol sectors for migrant apprehensions — accounted for nearly 94 percent of the agency’s fentanyl seizures in November. Those agents have advantages that their colleagues elsewhere don’t — and are seemingly making the most of them to slow the deadly drug flow.
Tucson Sector, in Context. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector has responsibility for 262 miles of the Southwest border, from the New Mexico state line in the east to the Yuma County line in the west. It also has the largest staff — with a cadre of about 3,700 agents — of the Border Patrol’s nine Southwest border sectors.
In the first two months of FY 2023 (October and November), those agents have apprehended just over 46,000 illegal migrants — a rate of 757.5 per day. That’s up from the 690 migrants per day whom agents in Tucson Sector apprehended in FY 2022, though monthly apprehensions in the sector have been fairly steady since hitting a high of more than 27,000 in March.
October apprehensions there were 19.5 percent higher than in the same month a year before, while November’s total was 8 percent higher.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Tucson-Sector-Case-Study-Border-Patrol-Fentanyl-Seizures
