Retired Border Patrol chief: ‘When is this going to end?’
Retired Yuma sector Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem describes mostly single adult males crossing the border near Lukeville, Ariz.
Retired Yuma Border Patrol chief Chris Clem joined "America's Newsroom" Wednesday from Lukeville, Arizona, where the border crossing has been overrun by an influx of mostly adult male migrants. Clem said people from all over the world, including eight Syrian nationals, are showing up at the border to be let into the United States.
CHRIS CLEM: There's no making sense of this. This is three years running. What we're dealing with down here. … What you're seeing right behind me, this is military-age, single, adult males, mostly single adult males. We just had about eight Syrian nationals come across. There's people from all over the world showing up here, right here in Lukeville. … Resources are so stretched, so thin that they've had to shut down ports of entry. Border patrols have to reassign operations to come down here and address this. And look, this is just reminiscent of what I dealt with the last two years in Yuma. So, again, we are continuing this, the same uncontrolled, unregulated illegal immigration and something needs to happen. Washington needs to get this right. It's getting old real fast.
Dec. 4, 2023: Migrants are seen camped out near Lukeville, Arizona. (Fox News)
One of the thousands of illegal immigrants who crossed into the U.S. at an overwhelmed part of the southern border in Arizona had warm words for the president of the United States as he hoped to be released into the country.
"I love you Joe Biden, thank you for everything, Joe Biden!" the male African migrant told Fox News in Lukeville, Arizona.
Both he and another migrant said they are not seeking asylum and instead wanted work and opportunity in the U.S.
Both the migrants were part of a massive surge of migration into the Tucson Sector in Arizona which has left authorities overwhelmed.
Fox News cameras were at the scene in Lukeville, where migrants were camped out in front of the border wall waiting to be processed.
The Tucson Sector saw nearly 3,000 encounters in a single day and has seen 17,500 encounters in a single week, the highest weekly total ever recorded.
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
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