A record number of migrants died at the border this year, 748 to date, a mark that surpassed the previous high set just last year by more than 200 victims, CNN reported.
The Department of Homeland Security data makes the Biden administration the deadliest one on the border for a president's first two years in office.
There have been 1,305 border deaths during the past two years under President Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump had 581 total border migrant deaths in the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, the fewest of any president's first two years since the data records began.
Trump's body count was dwarfed by the Biden administration in this year alone and almost surpassed by the previous record of 557 border migrant deaths in fiscal year 2021, which covered most of Biden's first year in office.
Biden's DHS data total almost doubles the previous most deadly border situation in the first two presidential years of former President Barack Obama, which saw 805 migrants die on the border in the 2008 and 2009 fiscal years.
Former President George W. Bush, who formed DHS after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, had 660 total migrant border deaths in 2001 and 2002, according to the DHS data that only goes back to 1998.
The 2022 totals will still rise, as the fiscal year ends Friday, Sept. 30.
Also, CNN reported, the death counts are likely higher because the dead bodies recovered by DHS are the only ones recorded. Other law enforcement agencies recovering deaths at the southern border do not figure in this data.
"Migrants, refugees, and entire families are using more distant and dangerous routes to come to the United States," Border Network for Human Rights Executive Director Fernando García told CNN.
Customs and Border Protection point to transnational human trafficking rings as being responsible for the deaths of migrants at the border. Experts have told Newsmax the Mexican cartels are emboldened and enriched financially by Biden's border policies.
"Transnational criminal organizations continue to recklessly endanger the lives of individuals they smuggle for their own financial gain with no regard for human life," CBP told CNN in a statement. "Smuggling organizations are abandoning migrants in remote and dangerous areas, leading to a rise in the number of rescues but also tragically a rise in the number of deaths.
"The terrain along the border is extreme, the summer heat is severe, and the miles of desert migrants must hike after crossing the border in many areas are unforgiving."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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