July 2024. Blues Vol 40 No.7

GUEST COMENTARY Jon

GUEST COMENTARY Jon Adler Border Mess is Endangering Police Nationwide More than 140,000 migrants have gotten away from the Border Patrol in less than 12 months. Some of them are very dangerous people. In March, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens announced that there had been 140,000 known “got-aways” at the Southwest border since Oct. 1, 2023. Known got-aways refers to the number of migrants that were able to evade capture while crossing the border illegally into the United States. It further means that there is a strong likelihood that a percentage of that number is comprised of violent criminals. We can debate that percentage, but the irrefutable fact is that this unspecified percentage of undocumented violent criminals poses a threat to officer safety. Am I suggesting that 140,000 migrants are going to immediately attack law enforcement officers? No, absolutely not. Like many Americans, I believe that the majority of migrants entering the United States illegally are simply searching for a better life. However, as I try to hold onto that optimistic perspective, a startling mathematical assessment illustrates the prospective problem for officer safety. If we consider that just 1% of the 18 The Blues - July ‘24 known got-aways may seek to harm law enforcement officers, that equates to 1,400 violent criminals now in our communities. How many of these 1,400 are terrorists, gang members, rapists, or mentally deranged violent criminals? And when the police come into contact with any of these 1,400, how many of them will attack, injure, or kill an officer? Is this a far-fetched xenophobic rant? Not in the least. Let us first consider published data from the CBP.gov website. From 2023 to the present, migrants committed an average of 40 assaults per month against Border Patrol agents. In fiscal year 2023, the Border Patrol captured 598 gang-affiliated migrants, and 169 migrants on the terrorist watchlist. The vast majority of these incidents involve migrants that crossed the Southwest border. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these migrants with violent backgrounds were crossing into the United States to advocate for world peace. And to be clear, these migrants were caught and thankfully not in the known gotaway category. In addition to the Border Patrol’s great work, the officers of the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) did a great job capturing known violent migrants during this time period. According to the ICE.gov website, ERO removed 3,406 known or suspected gang members in fiscal year 2023. That represents a 27.7% increase over the preceding year. ERO officers also captured 139 known or suspected terrorists in 2023, which represents a 148.2% over fiscal year 2022. This leaves us to question what the impact on officer safety would have been if these known violent migrants were able to evade capture and enter the United States. Let us move from speculation to five documented examples of how law enforcement officers were impacted by violent migrant confrontation from 2023 to the present. In May 2023, a Guatemalan migrant was arrested for man-

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