In light of the record number of undocumented immigrants who have crossed into the United States over the past three years, critics of the Biden administration routinely blame its “open borders” policies for the ongoing crisis.
Biden's foreign policy strategy is open wallets, endless wars and open borders.
We don't need a travel agent president, we need a bouncer. pic.twitter.com/0v4cgsxnGi
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) December 8, 2023
Many of the thousands of migrants who illegally enter the nation each day are also under the assumption that the borders are effectively wide open, according to the testimony of several top U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
A congressional probe conducted earlier this year by the House Homeland Security Committee involved testimony from border patrol insiders who described a current trend whereby migrants surrender to authorities, confident that they will ultimately be released pursuant to the Biden administration’s agenda.
Selections of the transcripts from these depositions, which took place between May and September, have now been published as the congressional panel’s investigation of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
For his part, Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin testified in July that it was “not uncommon now to see a group of 200 to 300 people giving themselves up, and they’re doing it in some of the most remote areas.”
Jason Owens, the chief patrol agent for the Del Rio Sector, offered a similar assessment, noting that migrants have been “predominantly turning themselves in” after crossing the border.
He described regularly seeing “in excess of 500 people” gather at one area near the border and wait for authorities to arrive and process them into the system, which typically ends in a minimally supervised release.
“For the majority of my career, I was chasing people that had crossed the border illegally,” Owens said. “The phenomenon of having people turn themselves in, it’s happened, but not at the levels that I have been seeing in the last couple years.”
Other agents, including from the San Diego and Rio Grande sectors, described the same trend in the regions they patrol. These revelations have only added to the growing calls for Mayorkas to be impeached.
“Secretary Mayorkas’ policies encourage lawbreaking to such a degree that record numbers of aliens are actually turning themselves in to border patrol agents, expecting to be released, rather than trying to escape across the border uncaught,” asserted Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-TN).
