Originally published September 20, 2023 12:59 pm PDT
Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, on Wednesday took to his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to express his surprise at the lack of comprehensive media coverage regarding the immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border.
He highlighted, “Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this. About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year.”
That figure was confirmed back in October 2022, when CNN reported U.S. border authorities encountered more than 2 million migrants in fiscal year 2022, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
At the time, the data showed a marked increase from fiscal year 2021 when there were more than 1.7 million encounters.
Highlighting the escalation of the problem in his Wednesday X post, Musk pointed out the “number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration.”
On Sunday alone, Border Patrol apprehended more than 7,500 migrants, according to two Department of Homeland Security officials.
Musk’s recent comments came in response to a tweet from Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin.
In his post, Melugin detailed the intensifying situation in Eagle Pass.
“It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now,” he said. “Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.”
Musk’s call for increased attention to this situation underscores the evolving nature of the southern border challenges.
While the Biden administration has not responded directly to Musk’s remarks, the situation continues to be a hotly contested point of discussion for many Americans.
On Monday, it was reported that a FerroMex train departing from Zacatecas, Mexico, was seen heading to the U.S. southern border, packed with enthusiastic migrants.
Footage from Sunday captured the scene with migrants, audibly ecstatic, clinging to the sides of the moving train.
This comes despite the U.S. authorities’ clear message to potential migrants, stating, “Do not come.”
The border has been grappling with an increased number of unauthorized crossings recently.
In a stark illustration, the town of Ajo, Arizona, experienced an influx with daily crossings reaching up to 2,000 on consecutive days last week.
This surge in numbers has pushed the border agents to their limits, resulting in street releases as the shelters have reached full capacity.
Notably, among these migrants are individuals who hail from as far away as Africa.
