There was a slight decrease in the numbers of immigrants coming across the nation's southern border but nothing has changed, as there is still no action being taken against the drug cartels, Texas Highway Patrol Lt. Christopher Olivarez said on Newsmax on Friday.
"There needs to be some change," Olivarez told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "Some action needs to be done right now. There's a lot of talk, a lot of conversation, a lot of strategies but nothing's been put in place to stem this flow of mass migration that we're seeing and the drugs that are coming across our border."
In addition, there is an increase in Chinese nationals coming into the country, particularly through the Rio Grande Valley, "which is something that we haven't seen before," said Olivarez. "Where we only saw maybe a couple of hundred in the prior year, we're up to almost 2,000 since Oct. 1."
More also needs to be done to dismantle the chemical laboratories that are operating both in Mexico and the United States, said Olivarez.
"We just dismantled a U.S. lab a couple of weeks ago in Houston, where U.S. citizens were operating a fentanyl lab," he said. "They had over 17 pounds of chemical precursors that were directly shipped from China. That is a serious problem, and something has to be done about it."
Meanwhile, the decreasing numbers of immigrants are typical for this time of year, but still, more than 100,000 encounters for January is unacceptable, said Olivarez.
"That's nothing normal, to see that type of mass migration taking place," he added. "I do anticipate the numbers are going to increase, especially going into the spring and the summer."
There are also increasing numbers of human smuggling cases, said Olivarez.
"This situation has not slowed down," he said. "It's changed, based on the months, but it's going to increase, and it's going to get much worse. That's why there needs to be some more pressure on the federal government to take action."
Meanwhile, Olivarez said morale in the Highway Patrol is still high, as it has "great support" from Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas legislature, but the Border Patrol, which is under the federal government, is not faring as well.
The Border Patrol, he said, is not getting the support it needs from the federal government, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas "consistently lies about what's taking place on the border."
"You cannot tell the American people that you have operational control and the border's secured when we see the visuals, when we see everything is taking place [with] the drugs that are coming across the border or make it past the ports of entry," said Olivarez.
"There has to be some type of explanation for that," he continued. "So the men and women of Border Patrol, we try to do as much as we can for them to provide that support to them. They're trying to do as much as they can. They want to get to do the job. They don't want to be constantly processing people that are coming across. They want to protect the country by securing the border and going after these criminals that are bringing these drugs across."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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