Tucson Sector Goes into Blackout Mode in Face of Migrant Tsunami
‘It is demoralizing to experience these numbers we’re experiencing’
By Andrew R. Arthur on November 27, 2023
The Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend is normally a quiet time, dedicated to pre-Christmas shopping and football. But not in Border Patrol’s Tucson sector. Things are so busy in the Arizona desert that head of the Border Patrol in the sector, John Modlin, had to call a media blackout there at 2:46 PM EDT, before pulling his Tweet announcing a “pause” in social media accounts and promising “to remain transparent” as the border melts down. That would be a welcome — albeit unlikely — change, but fortunately, Congress is stepping in to continue the flow of information to the American people. Not that the news is good.
Tucson Sector, in Brief
The nine stations in the Tucson sector have responsibility for 262 miles of the Southwest border, from the New Mexico border in the east to the border of Yuma County (Ariz.) in the west.
Speaking of transparency, the Border Patrol hasn’t released staffing figures since FY 2020, at which point there were 3,615 agents assigned to the sector, more than any other sector in the country. That was actually a drop from FY 2019, when nearly 3,700 agents provided security there.
Regardless of how many agents are currently assigned to Tucson sector, they’ve had their hands full, apprehending more than 191,000 aliens in FY 2021, a figure that jumped to nearly 252,000 in FY 2022, and then surged to 373,625 in FY 2023.
In October, the first month of the federal government’s FY 2024, agents in Tucson sector nabbed more than 55,000 illegal entrants, a 140-percent increase over October 2022 (nearly 23,000 apprehensions), placing the sector on track to make 662,000-plus apprehensions this fiscal year.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Tucson-Sector-Goes-Blackout-Mode-Face-Migrant-Tsunami
