FIRST ON FOX: The Biden administration is launching a new large-scale border enforcement operation with Mexico in order to combat the ongoing crisis at the southern border, Fox News Digital has learned — an operation that includes increases in checkpoints, resources and a crackdown of human smuggling operations.
The Biden administration will immediately begin returning Venezuelan nationals who entered illegally to Mexico, a source familiar with the plans told Fox News Digital. The U.S. has seen a surge in the number of migrants coming to the U.S. from the authoritarian regime, and until now has been unable to return migrants under the Title 42 public health order due to a lack of diplomatic relations with Venezuela and Mexico’s refusal to take Venezuelan nationals.
The U.S. and Mexico are also launching a large-scale border enforcement campaign. That includes new checkpoints for migrants, collaboration with targeting human smuggling operations and a surge in resources and law enforcement personnel.
The source said that the operation will also see increased information-sharing between the two countries on how transnational criminal organizations are using stash houses and staging locations and are transporting migrants through Mexico and into the U.S.
Venezuelan migrants walk along the U.S. border fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico to turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on Sept. 22, 2022.
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The Biden administration has been stressing the importance of a hemisphere-wide approach to the migrant crisis, and has been pushing for greater collaboration between nations in dealing with migration.
In June, President Biden attended the Summit of the Americas in June, along with a number of Western Hemisphere leaders, and unveiled a new migration declaration that Biden said would transform the regional approach to migration.
The approach included a slew of new migration-related commitments and spending from the U.S. and other countries, including Mexico.
The U.S. has seen more than 2.1 million migrant encounters this fiscal year, with more than 200,000 encountered in August alone. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, encounters with migrants from Mexico and Central America were down for the third month in a row, accounting for just 36% of unique encounters, while 55,333 unique encounters were from the totalitarian regimes of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, a 175% increase over last year.
This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.