Guad Venegas is a journalist and reporter who has worked for NBC News since 2021 and recently visited the southern border to cover the current immigration crisis. However, upon witnessing the situation with his own eyes, Venegas confessed that he had never seen so many people there and revealed that he heard the same thing from several colleagues.
Venegas' sighting was confirmed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers, which noted that up to 12,000 people crossed the border illegally in a single day. The report focused mainly on Eagle Pass, noting that the influx of people into the United States could be felt.
"These crowds here in Eagle Pass have never been this large during my reporting. This is the most people I've ever seen in Eagle Pass, and other reporters, colleagues working other parts of the border in Arizona, [and] in Jacumba near San Diego tell me the same thing," the journalist stated.
Customs and Border Protection says it’s a “serious challenge” to keep pace with the record number of migrants arriving daily at the Southern border. @guadvenegas reports on the latest details. pic.twitter.com/Gli3AktiLi
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 22, 2023
"We have these conversations and the conversation is always, 'Wow, I've never seen this number of migrants arriving,' and we know from the reports coming from the government with these numbers. We have the number of apprehensions, the numbers of encounters, everything spiking, so we don't know what this will mean moving forward, we just know that the numbers are much larger as the resources are spread thin," he added.
In turn, he revealed a conversation he had with Congressman Tony Gonzales (R-TX) about the situation for local authorities. For example, the number of immigrants is causing the area's hospitals to be overwhelmed.
"When the U.S. congressman visited this area, he said that the hospitals are also overwhelmed. So if someone calls 911 and needs to go to the hospital, that hospital might be overwhelmed because they're helping a lot of these migrants, so you have that humanitarian crisis happening as well," he reported.
The new Texas law to calm the immigration crisis
To counter the situation discussed by Venegas, Governor Greg Abbott signed new legislation that allows police to detain immigrants who cross the border illegally and gives judges the authority to order them to leave the United States.
Although immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, which could lead to a conflict of powers, Texas Republicans justified themselves by stating that the Biden administration is not doing enough to prevent and control illegal immigration.
"The goal of Senate Bill 4 is to stem the tide of illegal entry into Texas. Creates a criminal offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation for repeat offenders, which creates illegal reentry events with a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years," Abbott said during the signing.
