Two big stories regarding the southern border were in the news this week. One about asylum seekers, the other regarding slowing the flow of deadly drugs.
The flow of people
At least 38 people are dead and 29 are injured following a fire Monday at an immigration processing facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.
The migrants started the fire in protest, lighting their sleeping mats after learning they were being deported.
The blaze broke out shortly before 10 p.m.
Sixty-eight men from Central and South America were staying at the facility, which houses migrants who are waiting on requests for asylum in the U.S. or preparing to cross the border. At least 28 Guatemalan nationals were among the dead, Guatemala’s Institute of Migration confirmed.
Here’s a look at the increasing number of people at the border trying to get to the U.S. in recent years:
Southern border Border Patrol apprehensions and inadmissables by month
The most apprehensions in years was in December and the numbers in the El Paso, Texas, region near Ciudad Juárez, Mexico tripled.
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The flow of illegal drugs
The Department of Homeland Security has been looking into noninvasive technology to scan cargo and pedestrian vehicles for years. The first X-ray scanner for cargo coming through on the front lines went into action in Brownsville, Texas, last week.
Most U.S.-bound trucks and nearly all passenger vehicles are generally scanned selectively if they are pulled aside. Mexican cartels have long profited from these odds while smuggling fentanyl and other narcotics. The U.S. had a record of nearly 107,000 fatal overdoses from fentanyl in 2021, the most since numbers have been available.
Technology helping enforcement
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This transmission image above is from the Customs and Border Patrol and shows a tractor-trailer carrying picture frames and 4,834.8 kilograms of marijuana and 210 kilograms of crystal meth.
The U.S. wants to increase routine…
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