U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is deploying additional agents to the southern border. The crisis of illegal migrants flooding the U.S-Mexico border continues to grow and so far the Biden administration has been feckless in its approach to handling it. It is being reported that about 300 additional agents are being deployed but the exact number and locations where they will go are not being disclosed.

In February alone, more than 100,000 migrants including families and unaccompanied children were detained by CBP. Resources are strained and border patrol personnel are overwhelmed, unable to keep up with the flood of people coming to the border. The situation has gotten so desperate that the Biden administration put out a call for volunteers and suspended FBI fingerprint background checks on caregivers at shelter facilities. Last week a dozen retired border patrol agents called on Congress to provide additional resources as well as to work on immigration reform.

The number of unaccompanied migrant children in border facilities on Sunday, 5,767, was the highest since the federal government began releasing data last week. The overall number of unaccompanied migrant children in US government custody, however, ticked down slightly from more than 18,000 children last Thursday to around 17,650 on Sunday, the data shows.
Internal government estimates previously obtained by CNN indicate that the Biden administration could need at least 34,100 additional beds to keep up with the projected number of unaccompanied children arriving at the US-Mexico border through September.

What isn’t being said by Biden or his administration is that a good first step in alleviating the crisis on the border would be to enforce immigration laws already in place. How about enforcing Title 42? It allows migrants to be turned back from the border due to a public health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. Biden has flip-flopped on this. Sometimes he says migrants are being turned away, other times he says they are not. In the case of unaccompanied minors, he has been pretty consistent in saying they will not be turned away. The letter written by the retired border patrol personnel included recommendations as to what Congress should do.

Act now. The cycle of immigration crises must be a priority for Congress. Congress has
not successfully or meaningfully addressed immigration as an issue in over 25 years.
There have been transformative changes in migration, border security, technology in that
time that demand a renewed focus on this issue.

● Seek input from the career professionals in federal law enforcement and HHS regarding
the potential consequences of policy and budgetary decisions made by Congress. There is
a vast array of experience and data that can help inform policy decisions and ensure
successful execution.

● Ensure that policies are fully funded and resourced. Breakdowns in policy execution can
often be the result of political decisions that create backlogs, delays, and funding
deficiencies. Ensuring that every part of a policy is fully funded and resourced is critical
to the success of that policy. Many of the challenges we are seeing at the border today are
a result of a lack of funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and ORR to properly address the immediate crisis.

There really isn’t anything new in those recommendations. It comes off as mostly a plea for full funding and more resources, which is always the recommendation. The problem is that the Biden administration has been wishy-washy in their goals of doing the exact opposite of what the Trump administration did at the border to ease illegal migration. Border agents are sent mixed messages about enforcement of the law and are now having to do catch and release. Many families are now being released into the U.S. without a date to show up for an asylum hearing.

Border patrol agents are being pulled from their usual duties and sent to take care of children and families in holding facilities. The gaps in border protection are being exploited by migrants. The migrants are called “gotaways” – those able to flee from capture and detention. The gaps are also being exploited by drug cartels.

Cochise County runs its own camera system in southern Arizona and in court documents earlier this month estimated that “gotaways” represented 72% of the migrants in the area it covers.

The rate in Texas, where most of the surge is occurring, is likely lower because the unaccompanied children and some migrant families want to be caught. They know they won’t be sent back under current conditions and policy. Indeed, the government pays to unite the children with family living in the U.S., often themselves illegally, so there is even a monetary incentive for children to be caught.

Of 6,000 migrants nabbed along the southern border Thursday, 600 were unaccompanied juveniles and another 2,200 were family migrants. Of those, only 300 were expelled under the pandemic border shutdown order, a senior Border Patrol official told reporters.

Caring for that number of migrants is taxing the Border Patrol, leaving the gaps in the line that the cartels exploit.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said he has been told that agents are so overwhelmed that they will no longer be able to respond if his deputies encounter suspected illegal immigrants and call them in.

That means his department will now be forced into catch-and-release.

“Due to child care duties and enhanced administrative processing reassignments, effective March 28, I was told by Border Patrol leadership that they would not be able to assist my deputies who come into contact with potential undocumented individuals,” Sheriff Dannels told The Times. “We have to release them. It’s the continued domino impact by this administration.”

They are coming because they know they will be allowed to stay. Drug cartels are bringing in drugs because there is not enough border personnel to secure the border and stop the flow of drugs. All of this was predicted yet the Biden administration refused to listen to professionals and personnel on the ground. Biden came into office with an open borders agenda. Nothing will change until policies change.