Amidst a Massive AZ Heat Wave, Migrant Border Crossings Doubled in July
The number of illegal border crossings through Arizona has increased 134% in the last month despite an extreme heat wave scorching the south, according to a recent report by CBS News.
According to unpublished Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics cited by CBS News, the number of migrants entering each day through the Sonoran Desert is reaching a high of 1,900 individuals. This total is over double the average number of migrants attempting to enter the country illegally just last month.
The large spike in migrants comes during a massive heat wave across the state of Arizona. Temperatures across the border are averaging over 110 degrees each day, requiring CBP to take cautious measures in order to effectively enforce the border.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for CBP explained, “The Border Patrol has surged personnel and transportation resources to respond to the increase in encounters in the area – some of the hottest, most isolated, and dangerous areas of the southwest border – where individuals have been callously sent by smuggling organizations to walk for miles, often with little or no water.”
But the heat has been devastating for migrants attempting to enter the country through the southern border as well; in the last few years, heat exposure has been the leading cause of death for migrants crossing the border.
Last month, CBP rescued two individuals along the southern border via helicopter who were suffering from heat stress. Border patrol agents were forced to perform an immediate air evacuation to get these two individuals to safety.
“CBP’s Border Patrol and Air and Marine agents operate daily in the extreme terrain and excessive heat conditions so common in southern Arizona; often with minimal regard for their own safety and well-being,” explained John Modlin, chief patrol agent of CBP’s Tucson Sector. “Border Patrol agents will literally give up the own water off their backs to save a life knowing they still have to hike out of the remote terrain in 100 plus degree heat.”
