Border Patrol Sector Chiefs Say Migrants Know They will be Released in U.S. Fueling Immigration Crisis

The Biden administration impedes Border Patrol agents from fulfilling their duty of securing the southwest border by prohibiting consequences for most individuals crossing into the United States illegally and instead practicing a mass release policy that encourages more illegal immigration. In fact, the expectation of “prompt release into the interior” has helped craft the nation’s historic border crisis, according to scathing material provided to a congressional panel by Border Patrol sector chiefs. In Arizona’s Yuma Sector alone, about 70% of illegal immigrants apprehended since Biden became president have been released inside the U.S. “There needs to be a consequence to the illegal activity, otherwise it won’t stop,” San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke told members of the House Committee on Homeland Security. “And when you look at a population that’s coming, the only real consequence that we have is to send them back to their home country.”

But that has not occurred under the Biden administration, the San Diego Sector chief as well as his counterparts along the Mexican border confirm. Lack of meaningful consequences for unlawful entry has created perverse incentives to enter the U.S. illegally, the Homeland Security committee found after extensive interviews with eight Border Patrol sector chiefs. Unprecedented numbers of illegal aliens have been released, including more than 1.6 million under some form of parole despite the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) limiting parole to a “case by case” and “temporary” basis. The Border Patrol has also released over 1.2 million illegal immigrants with a Notice to Appear (NTA) on their own recognizance for hearings that are often years away and Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) has issued over half a million NTAs since February 2021. Also, for a brief period in 2021, at least 104,000 illegal aliens were released in the country with a Notice to Report (NTR) to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days.

Additionally the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after 9/11 to prevent another terrorist attack, frees inside the U.S. the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants who use the CBP One App, including those from “hostile nations.” The congressional panel found that 95.8% (278,431) of all inadmissible aliens who scheduled appointments through the app between Jan. 12 an Sept. 30, 2023 were ultimately issued an NTA and released into the U.S. on parole. This includes individuals from “countries of concern,” including Russia, China, Yemen, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and Egypt. Nearly all the Russian, Afghan, Chinese and Iranian nationals who made CBP One appointments were released in the U.S., according to the records. Most of the Latin Americans were also freed into the country, including illegal immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela. Another recently created program to welcome migrants into the U.S. has granted 269,744 Cubans Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans mass parole at ports of entry nationwide and ICE’s non-detained docket has grown by nearly two million while CBP has recorded 1.7 million known “gotaways” since Biden became commander-in-chief.

Because the migrant population knows the U.S. will more than likely release illegal border crossers in the country, big groups are giving themselves up to federal agents, Border Patrol officials say.
“They’re giving up because they believe they’re going to stay in the United States,” said Chief Border Patrol Agent John Modlin of Arizona’s Tucson Sector. “If not, they would be, like everyone else in Tucson, dressed head to toe in camouflage, running as fast as they could, staying up in the mountains or in the valleys to avoid detection by our system.” The Yuma, Arizona deputy chief, Dustin Caudle, confirmed that “the belief that they are going to be released with no consequence is certainly something that many migrants tell our agents.” The chief of California’s El Centro Sector, Gegory Bovino, told lawmakers that providing a consequence to someone that illegally enters the country “has a great effect on migration routes and those who seek to come across the border.” The chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas, Gloria Chavez, said “when there’s not a consequence, we continue to see some of these surges that we—that we’re experiencing here recently.”

The Biden policies have proven to be devastating. Fiscal year 2023, which ended in September, was a record-breaker for illegal immigration with a ghastly 2.48 million migrants, surpassing what was previously a historical high of 2.38 million in 2022. The last month of the fiscal year (September), federal agents encountered a whopping 269,735 illegal aliens constituting an all-time high for a single month and a substantial increase over August when CBP encountered 232,963 migrants. The Tucson Sector saw an unprecedented 109% spike in illegal immigrants during the last month of the fiscal year compared to August and a total 48% increase for 2023, from 251,984 last year to 373,625. The El Paso crossing in Texas had a 39% boost in illegal immigration compared to last year with 427,471 crossings compared to 307,844 in 2022. Texas sectors located south of El Paso also saw large numbers of illegal immigrants, with Del Rio recording 393,226 and Rio Grande Valley 338,337. California got bombarded as well with a 31% hike in illegal aliens in San Diego and a 30% rise in El Centro. If there are no repercussions for violators the numbers will just keep growing.