Bavaria's new border patrol has logged over 1,750 civil and criminal indictments in the past month, which is motivating Angela Merkel and her allies to backtrack on their "open borders" policies.
Border agents have arrested over 500 wanted persons and stopped over 220 illegal attempts to cross the border, according to Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann.
The agency reached those stats despite the fact that, when it was created on July 18, the German federal government severely restricted its powers.
"Earlier this year, the state of Bavaria agreed with the federal government that it would create its own police force to work alongside federal authorities officially tasked with the guarding Germany's external borders," reported DW. "As part of the controversial deal, Bavarian officers are allowed to conduct spot checks but only with the federal government's permission."
"The new unit is not allowed to act unilaterally."
The agency currently has 500 officers, says Herrmann, and it's expected to grow to 1000 officers by 2023.
This wouldn't be happening unless German public opinion was turning against Merkel's immigration policies - and it is.
In fact, Merkel and her coalition government have already struck deals with Spain and Greece to return migrants who had already lodged an asylum request in another country.
"Germany's spate of bilateral migrant deals with southern European states come in the wake of Chancellor Angela Merkel's compromise with her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, which ended a week-long disputed that threatened to split the ruling coalition," reported DW. "Seehofer initially threatened to shut Germany's southern border to halt the flow of migrants into the country before allowing Merkel to attempt to strike her own deals with the Mediterranean states."
(Photo: LINO MIRGELER/AFP/Getty Images)
