Border Patrol reports record migrant encounters for 2022

NOGALES, Ariz. (KGUN) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reporting a record breaking number of migrant encounters for the 2022 fiscal year, with still one month to go.

With new numbers from August released, Border Patrol has surpassed the 2.4 million mark for migrant encounters along the border. The majority of those encounters along the southwest border.

"The people that we do actually encounter, they do not want to be detected, they do not want to be apprehended," Border Patrol Agent Jesus Vasavilbaso said. "They wear camouflage from head to toe in comparison to other sectors in Texas or Yuma, where most of the traffic that they're getting or the encounters that they're doing are people that are turning themselves in."

The steep rugged terrain along our Nogales border making it even more challenging for agents trying to patrol.

"Some of these areas, we don't have any access," Vasavilbaso said. "Now with the new border wall or border fence that was built. We have new access new roads that we didn't have before. But there's still quite a bit of terrain that we're responsible for patrolling where we don't have any access."

CBP agents say they're also noticing an increase in recruiting young teens for human and drug smuggling in Nogales.

Teenagers and young people that are being recruited through social media, especially from the Phoenix area where they're getting a message about being coming to the border and picking up migrants or packages for a few $1,000 and that puts their life at risk," Vasabilbaso said. "Their liberties at risk and also putting the migrants at risk."

Border agents also reported over 2 million arrests for 2022 and had a two percent increase in migrant encounters from July to August.