and Border Protection custody over the last several weeks, according to a Department of Homeland Security document prepared for President Joe Biden and reviewed by NBC News Saturday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Friday a Border Patrol agent who was patrolling near the Rio Grande in the El Paso Sector fired upon from two individuals on the Mexican side of the border. The agent took cover and was not hit.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a planned phone call on Monday with Vice President Kamala Harris he would urge the United States to reopen the two countries' shared southern border "completely."
A leaked presidential briefing document reported on by NBC News revealed that 20 percent of unaccompanied migrant children who illegally crossed the border are testing positive for COVID-19 after being released into communities by Border Patrol. The report covers the last two to three weeks of data prepared for President Joe Biden, NBC says.
The Democrat president's administration has been trying to manage a surge in illegal immigration, a spike in new COVID-19 cases, and just recently the expiration of an eviction moratorium. All these efforts have faced criticism – and not just from political opponents.
COVID-positive illegal immigrants are being let into the U.S., and fewer MS-13 gang members are being caught during the largest border surge in 20 years.
The crush of 210,000 illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in July (the second-highest in history) has led to a human disaster at multiple crossing points, according to photos provided by the former acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
