TEXAS, USA — KVUE dug into the latest numbers of contacts along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Border Patrol agents caught or turned back more than 711,000 people since January of this year, at 711,784. That's already more than all of last year. In 2020 that number was 547,825. This year is already close to the total number of contacts in 2019, which was 921,812.
Looking at recent drug busts at the southern border, last week, Border Patrol agents seized more than 665 pounds of marijuana in the Brownsville area. Agents found the drugs in an SUV. The driver led agents on a chase, droving the Ford Explorer into the Rio Grande River and then swimming back to Mexico.
Also last week, Customs officers found 28 pounds of fentanyl in a bus crossing the international bridge in Laredo.
On June 17 and 18, Customs officers found more than 87 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in two vehicles crossing the international bridge in Brownsville.
But the number of drug busts has decreased. Since January, border agents have made more than 184,000 drug stops (184,248), compared to this time last year, when they made 250,000 drug busts (251,089).
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