A Mexican national in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was arrested on human smuggling charges, according to a social media post by a U.S. Border Patrol official. Gregory K. Bovino, Chief Patrol Agent of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, said the suspect was returned to his home country following apprehension. El Centro Sector covers 70 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Southern California’s Imperial Valley.
The DACA policy, introduced by former President Barack Obama in 2012, was declared illegal by a federal judge in September. The judge, however, issued no directive to cease the program. Serving roughly 830,000 individuals, the DACA program grants certain privileges to non-citizens as long as the recipient maintains lawful conduct.
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicates that nearly 380,000 illegal immigrants were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border within the first two months of fiscal year 2024, beginning on October 1, 2023. This follows 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 in fiscal year 2022, and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021. Former President Donald Trump has called the border crisis — ignored and arguably facilitated by the Biden government — an “invasion.”
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Biden government, permitting Border Patrol officers to remove concertina wire installed along Texas’s border with Mexico. Texas Governor Greg Abbott erected the fencing in response to the Biden administration’s lack of border security enforcement.
