Rodolfo Karisch, the U.S. Border Patrol chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector, says every week he witnesses migrants reaching the U.S.-Mexico border in numbers similar to high-profile caravans of asylum-seekers from Central America.
“In my thirty years as an agent, I have never witnessed the conditions we are currently facing on the southwest border,” Karisch testified Tuesday during a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“The fact is RGV is receiving caravan-equivalent numbers of migrants every seven days,” Karisch added, referencing his Rio Grande Valley sector.
Border Patrol Chief on crisis: “receiving caravan-equivalent numbers of migrants every 7 days”https://t.co/1McIvBtuqk pic.twitter.com/LXNb99OeJB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 9, 2019
Multiple caravans with people from several Central American countries have made their way up to the southern border since last fall and into this year.
Karisch emphasized that the border situation was “not a manufactured crisis” as Democrats have contended.
In February, President Trump declared a border emergency allowing him to move government funds to build a wall on the southern border, prompting a swift legal challenge from 16 states.
Karisch was assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Sector earlier this year.
