EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 10,000 migrants during a 48-hour period, the agency’s chief said Wednesday.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz tweeted several figures, calling them “Significant numbers for just 2 days!”
He said that in addition to the 10,070 apprehensions, agents arrested five sex offenders, four wanted individuals, and one gang member.
Agents also seized 52 pounds of fentanyl; 38 pounds of ecstasy; 11 pounds of meth and 11 pounds of cocaine.
Ortiz said agents confiscated $48,000, 20 firearms and recovered five stolen vehicles.
On Monday, Ortiz tweeted the agents had apprehended 13,588 migrants in the past 72 hours.
Although the numbers represent a two-day span, border agents in Texas have encountered several large groups in recent weeks. The agency considers groups of more than 100 “large groups.”
In the Del Rio Sector, agents and local first responders rescued a group of 140 people that became stranded on a small island in the Rio Grande on Monday.
Also on Monday, agents in El Paso uncovered two stash houses holding 146 migrants in the city’s Lower Valley.
On March 29, 1,000 mostly Venezuelan migrants surrendered to border agents in El Paso. Border Patrol officials said the migrants might have been misinformed regarding current immigration policies and initiatives and led to believe that the U.S. would let them in at a specific location along the border.