New videos showed hundreds of people illegally crossing over the border from Mexico to Texas this week.
On Wednesday, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin shared infrared drone footage of lines he said showed several hundred people that made an illegal crossing through Eagle Pass in Texas before sunrise on Wednesday.
“NEW: Several mass illegal crossings in Eagle Pass, TX overnight, including this group of several hundred that crossed before sunrise,” Melugin tweeted. “Title 42 remains in effect, but most of the people crossing in this sector are from countries T42 isn’t enforced on, & majority are released.”
Melugin’s mention of Title 42 refers to Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which confers the U.S. government with certain authorities in the name of public health, social welfare and civil rights. 42 U.S. Code § 265 specifically allows for the U.S. to block entry into the country by people coming from areas of known disease outbreaks.
President Donald Trump enacted 42 U.S. Code § 265 during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, which gave the U.S. the added ability to automatically expel people who crossed the border illegally. The policy was set to end this month but remains in place as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the policy.
On Thursday, Melugin shared a video he said came from a law enforcement source that showed numerous migrants waiting to cross into the U.S. near Brownsville, Texas.
Townhall journalist Julio Rosas tweeted another video purporting to show migrants on the streets in El Paso, Texas, a border town.
“The migrant homeless situation on the streets of El Paso has gotten worse as the encampments have grown in size since last week, all the while the status of Title 42 is still up in the air,” Rosas tweeted. “The temps are expected to drop to the 30’s tonight.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol sources told Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins that an estimated 505,137 migrants crossed over the Southwest border of the U.S. in the first 74 days of fiscal year 2023, which began on Oct. 1.
According to official CBP data that’s currently only shows numbers through the month of October, there had been 230,678 border encounters in just the first month of the 2023 fiscal year. On Thursday, Melugin retweeted a claim from a border patrol union alleging there were another 209,000 border patrol arrests in November.
“We are 22 days into December and the Biden admin still hasn’t released border numbers for November,” Melugin tweeted. “The Border Patrol union says agents had 209,000 migrant apprehensions in November. That would be highest November ever recorded, right after border just saw highest October ever.”
“This 209k number does not include CBP numbers for encounters at ports of entry, which is usually another 10-20,000 per month roughly,” Melugin added. “So the final November number would be higher than 209,000.”
