Nearly 565,000 illegal border crossers were reported in Arizona in fiscal year 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. data.

The 378 miles of shared border between Arizona and Mexico are managed by CBP and Border Patrol agents in the CBP sectors of Tucson and Yuma. The Tucson Sector’s shared border with Mexico, 262 miles long, extends from the Yuma County line to the Arizona-New Mexico border. The Yuma Sector’s nearly 182,000 square miles, mostly desert, stretch from the Imperial Sand Dunes in California to the Yuma-Pima County line.

The Tucson sector has always been one of the busiest along the United States-Mexico border. In fiscal year 2024, Border Patrol agents reported 463,567 illegal border crossers, the most of any sector along the southwest border during the year, which s extends from October 1 to September 30. The second highest number was reported by the San Diego Sector Border Patrol. agents of nearly 325,000, The Center Square reported.

Agents in the Tucson Field Operations Office also reported 47,051 illegal border crossers in fiscal year 2024, significantly fewer than OFO San Diego’s 183,890 during the same period.

In CBP’s Yuma Sector, Border Patrol agents reported 53,877 illegal border crossers. Due to the area’s vast desert, large drifting sand dunes, mountainous terrain, ever-changing Colorado River and temperatures exceeding 120 degrees, Yuma Border Patrol agents often rescue illegal border crossers in distress.

In total, arrests in Arizona totaled at least 564,495 in fiscal year 2024, not including absconders, those who entered illegally and evaded capture. Data for both sectors is consistent with national data: the overwhelming majority of people crossing borders illegally are single adults from around the world.

In the Tucson area of ​​Cochise County, Sheriff Mark Dannels says that despite numerous requests, he has never met with President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris in their entire term in office because his rural county has been hit by illegal border crossers and cartels. crime.

“My community has been frustrated for three and a half years with what we’ve had to deal with… in crime and policies that have failed this country; politicians have failed our citizens and the tragedies my neighbors are talking about in silence, because no one is listening,” said Dannels, who is also president of the National Border Security Sheriff’s Association.

Over a 31-month period, his office incarcerated 3,762 people in the county jail for border-related crimes. said. “These are not immigration issues. These are border-related crimes, with murders in the double digits. »

In a investigation Led by the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Arizona Border Patrol leaders have expressed concerns about the escapades and risks to national security. John Modlin, Tucson Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent, said, “When we make an arrest, we can then examine that person and find out, if they have a criminal history, if there are any national security. The escapades are a public safety problem…potentially a national security problem.

“The smuggling organizations in our south are very well organized and resourceful,” he said, referring to Mexican cartels. “Every person passing through the Tucson area must pay these criminal organizations. The migrants we encounter are entirely camouflaged by smuggler organizations before crossing. Most flee and fight our agents to avoid being apprehended. Many are previously deported felons who know they are inadmissible to the United States and many pose a serious threat to our communities.

Modlin also expressed concerns about the need to pull officers from other areas to deal with increases in pressure, a practice used across sectors, The Center Square reported. Dustin Caudle, deputy chief of the Yuma Sector Border Patrol, said the sector’s three interior checkpoints are critical to preventing escapes, but the majority of fiscal 2022 and most of fiscal 2023 were down, meaning the border was wide open and unmanned.

As Border Patrol agents were inundated with waves of illegal border crossings and given deadlines to process and release them into the country under Biden-Harris policies, background checks and screenings were not always carried out and individuals on the terrorist watch list were released into the country. , according to congressional investigations and the Office of Inspector General reports. Americans living more than 2,600 miles away are also feeling the consequences. Crimes in New England can be traced back to foreign nationals entering the country illegally in Arizona, according to The Center Square. reported.

Despite ongoing challenges, federal, state and local law enforcement in Arizona have seized a record amount of fentanyl in recent years, enough to kill billions of people. Earlier this year, CBP officers seized half a ton of fentanyl at the Lukeville Port of Entry in the Tucson Sector, the largest fentanyl seizure in CBP history. With two milligrams considered a lethal dose and 22,696.2 lethal doses in a pound, they seized more than 453 million lethal doses, enough to kill roughly the entire population of the United States and Mexico.

Arizona parents who lost children to fentanyl, like Josephine Dunn, called on the Arizona Legislature and Congress to act, The Center Square reported.

As the Biden-Harris administration has ramped up flights of illegal aliens into the country, apprehensions at the Arizona border declined in fiscal 2024 compared to the more than 775,000 reported during the fiscal year 2023, The Center Square first reported. reported.