Border Security Then And Now – You Be The Judge.

The year was 2018.  The United States was facing yet another wave of illegal immigration across the southwest border.   

I would say it was groundhog day, but things seemed very different.  In past years, most illegal aliens were adult men from Mexico. Now the majority are from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, but over 130 different nationalities are mixed in. There are thousands of families entering illegally, then surrendering to the first agents they can find to claim asylum.   

Or at least they claim to be families!  It’s nearly impossible to know if a child is related to the adult without conducting in depth interviews.  With thousands of illegal entries a day, agents don’t have time to conduct those interviews.   

Cartels make billions smuggling migrants from around the world. More importantly, the cartels leverage the massive volume of migrants to overwhelm border patrol and create voids in border security.  This allows them to easily smuggle narcotics and criminals into the U.S.  Ever wondered why a migrant family fully intent on surrendering and asking for asylum would wait until after dark to cross the border?  The cartels control the crossings.  

Word is out that if you cross into the U.S. as a family and claim asylum you will get released into the U.S. within a few days, or even hours.  Intel indicates that human traffickers are now selling or renting children to create families to exploit this asylum loophole.  By the end of 2018, the US Border Patrol was consistently arresting more “family groups” (FMUA) than single adults.  The agents know these aren’t all real families, but they lack the time to prove it.   

Something in 2018 else seemed very different too. This presidential administration actually cared. Every president has said that border security was important, but this president was making it a priority.  For the first time in my career, the President of the United States was acknowledging that border security is national security. He made it clear to his entire team that we simply must know who and what is entering our homeland and that they should listen to the career border security experts.   

While the public attention was directed toward the construction of the border wall system, a significant effort was underway behind the scenes to build a multination coalition throughout the western hemisphere.  Mitigating the FMUA asylum fraud loophole to protect the children was a top priority.  If we could ensure due process while dramatically reducing the fraud, then the number of illegal entries would decline and agents would have more time to devote to enforcement, to include investigating fake families and child trafficking.  

By early 2019, DHS was rolling out the Migrant Protection Protocols, more commonly known as “Remain in Mexico.”  Other programs were also being unveiled, including expedited asylum reviews at the border, foreign electronic identification verifications to expedite repatriation, and efforts to establish cooperative asylum agreements with several countries.  Illegal entries dropped dramatically.  From a high of over 84,400 FMUAs in a single month, by December that number dropped to 8595.  By March 2020, it dropped below 3500.   Agents spent less time processing and more on enforcement.  Child traffickers were identified and charged.  In one case the same child was forced to make the journey from Central America repeatedly with a “new family” each time.  Border security was getting better every day.  

The year is now 2021.  The Biden Administration stopped all border wall system construction and shut down every effective program that developed during the prior four years.  Catch and release is back and expanded.  Tens of thousands of FMUAs have been released into the U.S. with a simple notice to self-report to ICE once they get to their destination.  Others are issued a Notice to Appear in court later and then released.  Still others are being granted parole into the U.S. under a provision of law that is only supposed to be used on a limited case-by-case basis.   The equivalent of a large 2019 like caravan now crosses the border illegally every day.  Over 1.6 million illegal aliens from 150 different nations were encountered illegally entering the U.S. in FY21.  479,728[i] claimed to be part of a family group. There is no time for in-depth interviews.  There were also approximately 400,000 known instants where individuals got away. Yet DHS Secretary Mayorkas insists the border is secure.    

I asked a current DHS career official how we lost control of the border so fast. This is what he said, “The former administration detailed career experts to a multitude of positions to ensure that the components’ voices were heard. This administration has a bunch of inexperienced appointees who’ve never worked in the government dictating immigration [and border] policy from afar totally ignoring warnings from career experts.” 

Border Security is National Security.