Border Patrol Leaders Say They Need More Border Wall, Gaps Leave the Country Vulnerable; Biden Policies Sending ‘Open-Border’ Message to Migrants; ‘Tremendous concern’ That Terrorists Could Be Among 1.2 Million ‘gotaways’ That Slipped Into US: Border Chief, and related stories

Biden Policies Sending ‘Open-Border’ Message to Migrants, Border-Patrol Officials Testify

A record number of illegal immigrants have poured into the country since President Biden took office because they believe his administration is presiding over an open border, Border Patrol officials testified Tuesday before a hearing of the Republican House Oversight Committee.

Republicans began the hearing by blaming the Biden administration for incentivizing illegal migration by reversing several effective Trump-era policies, including the Migrant Protection Protocols, which required would-be asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are being adjudicated.

Representative Byron Donalds (R., Fla.) made the case that Biden’s presidency is the decisive factor that explains the record increase in illegal crossings, recounting the last 12 years of border apprehensions, starting with 447,000 in 2010 and ending with 2.2 million in 2022, nearly two years into Biden’s tenure.

“There was someone who became president of the United States in January 2021. On January 2021, this gentleman actually got rid of the migrant protection protocols, he stopped border wall funding, he gutted interior enforcement against illegal aliens, put a 100-day moratorium to ‘study’ border security protocols,” Donalds said.

Asked whether those policy changes contributed to increased migrant apprehensions, Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin of the Tucson Sector said that many migrants interpreted Biden’s election as an overhaul in the immigration regime. There was an overwhelming belief among border crossers, he said, “that when the administration changed, the law changed.”

Modlin said many migrants believed that “there was an open border.”

Representative (R., Ky.) James Comer agreed that Biden’s messaging has been that migrants won’t be stopped from entering the interior. —>READ MORE HERE

‘Tremendous concern’ that terrorists could be among 1.2 million million ‘gotaways’ that slipped into US: border chief:

A Border Patrol chief admitted his “tremendous concern” terrorists and spies have infiltrated into the country through the porous US-Mexico border during a Congressional hearing Tuesday morning.

The stunning response was an answer to a question asked during a border security hearing in which two US Border Patrol chiefs assigned to different parts of the international boundary testified.

Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona asked if terrorists or foreign agents could be among the 1.2 million “gotaways” — people Border Patrol have spotted on camera or by sight but been unable to stop getting into the country — since President Biden took office.

“To speculate who could possibly be in the ‘gotaways’ or the unknowns would just simply be speculation,” said Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin, who heads up the Tucson sector of the agency.

“All I can tell you is that it is a tremendous concern that anyone goes through the border undetected, but the reality is that we know that there are people getting by.”

In the fiscal year 2022, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 98 people whose names appeared on the terror watchlist trying to enter the US illegally. Since the new year started in October 2022, 38 people identified as known terrorists, suspected terrorists, or associates of both were stopped from attempting to cross into the US.

A record-shattering 2.4 million migrants were encountered by federal agents at the border in the fiscal year 2022 — the most ever. The second highest year was 2021 when 1.7 million attempts to cross the southern border were made, according to federal statistics. —>READ MORE HERE

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