Sixteen people on the FBI’s terror watch-list — mixed in with record-breaking numbers of migrants illegally entering the United States — were stopped along the U.S.-Mexico border last month, authorities said.

According to data reported by Fox News, those numbers raised the total amount of such encounters at the southern border this year to 69, which Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents expect to continue increasing and shatter last fiscal year’s 98 encounters.

CBP Office of Field Operations authorities reported that the agency had encountered at least 214 people on the Terrorist Screening Database along both the southern and northern border ports of entry in the current fiscal year.

It was not immediately known the identities of the 16 terror watch-list individuals.

In the fiscal year 2022, authorities apprehended 380 such individuals.

Between 2017 and 2020, the news outlet reported that authorities apprehended eight terror watch-list members between ports of entry. In 2021, agents encountered 15 individuals named on the FBI’s list.

The rise in terror watch-list arrests at the border pairs with surge of as many as 4.9 million migrants who have crossed into the United States under the administration of President Joe Biden, according to data from the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

CPB authorities encountered more than 2.3 million migrants in fiscal year 2022, with more than 80,000 migrants entering through El Paso between August and December last year.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

The New York Post reported that CBP authorities apprehended 128,877 people who crossed the border illegally in January and another 128,913 in February; the agency has attributed new measures recently implemented for the slight drop in encounters.

“The new border enforcement measures kept February’s overall encounter numbers nearly even with January,” said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller.

Fox News reported that the outlet obtained the data within hours after Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told House Homeland Security Committee officials during a hearing in McAllen, Texas, that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have operational control of the border.

DHS officials repeatedly claim the agency enforces laws that secure the national borders to combat cartels and smugglers.

“Despite inheriting a dismantled immigration system and facing unprecedented migration that is affecting nations throughout the Western Hemisphere, this administration has surged resources to the border, reducing the number of encounters between ports of entry, disrupting more smuggling operations than ever before, and interdicting more drugs in the last two years than had been stopped in the five years prior,” a spokesperson told Fox News.

Biden administration officials have accused Republican lawmakers of not approving border funding requests from the federal government. However, GOP officials argue the president’s policies are the primary cause of the border crisis.

Switzerland‘s two largest banks are poised to merge in a deal regulators sought to help create stability as volatility rocks financial institutions around the globe.

UBS, the larger of the pair, agreed on Sunday to buy troubled competitor Credit Suisse for more than $3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“With the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS, a solution has been found to secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy in this exceptional situation,” said the Swiss National Bank.

The exact details of the arrangement are not all fully clear, but the Financial Times reported that Swiss authorities were working to speed up the process by changing laws to bypass a shareholder vote.

In addition, the Swiss National Bank said it would offer a loan of up to 100 billion Swiss francs ($108 billion) to support the takeover, and the Swiss government pledged to cover about 9 billion francs ($9.7 billion) worth of potential losses for assets being taken over by UBS, per CNBC.

Swiss President Alain Berset said the deal is “one of great breadth for the stability of international finance,” the Associated Press reported. “An uncontrolled collapse of Credit Suisse would lead to incalculable consequences for the country and the international financial system.”

The Financial Stability Board, an international group that assesses the global financial system, considers Credit Suisse to be one of 30 “systemically important” banks.

With its shares plummeting by 75% in the past 12 months, Credit Suisse received a lifeline of 50 billion franks, or $54 billion, from the Swiss central bank last week, but CNN reported that did not fully reassure investors. The purchase price reported on Sunday would be less than half the 7.4 billion francs Credit Suisse was worth at the close of trading on Friday, according to Bloomberg News.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

Credit Suisse, which is nearly 167 years old, reportedly had about 50,000 employees by the end of 2022 while UBS has about 74,000 employees around the world.

News of the purchase comes after Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank collapsed this month, after which the U.S. federal government took steps to protect depositors.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen assured Congress last week that the U.S. financial system “remains sound,” and 11 major banks offered $30 billion in deposits to assist the struggling First Republic Bank.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett reportedly spoke with Biden administration officials in recent days about contending with the banking crisis, including a possible investment into the U.S. regional banking sector.