This week, I traveled to the Southern border in Arizona to examine the crisis and consult with Border Patrol on the historic levels of illegal immigration. By touring some of the most vulnerable areas of the border and meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), I learned more details about the tremendous uphill battle that agents face as a result of President Biden's open-border agenda.
While surveying the border, we came across a group of 21 migrants, including 14 children, who journeyed in the desert before crossing the border illegally and waiting to be apprehended. After being taken into custody and processed by CBP, many of these individuals are released into the interior of the United States within hours.
All individuals apprehended, regardless of age or nationality, make the trip to the U.S. border by paying to be smuggled there by Mexican drug Cartels. There is an understanding that, upon arrival, they will “check in” to CBP to be processed as asylum-seekers. Because the Cartels are responsible for directing migrant foot traffic to certain parts of the border, they know when agents will be preoccupied handling asylum-seekers. Thus, the door is left open for drugs to flow into the United States in less populated areas that are left unguarded.
Thousands of pounds of drugs, including deadly fentanyl, continue to pour across the border undetected. Additional resources and manpower for Border Patrol could stop these drugs, but the Biden Administration has halted all wall construction and pulled agents from the front lines. With no end in sight, morale is at historic lows among Border Patrol agents.
Over the past two years, we've had over 1.3 million recorded 'got-aways,' or people who evaded apprehension and illegally escaped into the country. Over 130 people on the terrorist watch list have been apprehended at the Southern border. Even worse, criminal Cartels are thriving by profiting off drug trafficking and shepherding people to the country.
Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed and frustrated they cannot sufficiently protect the border due to the dismantling of our immigration system since President Biden took office. For every day current policies allow crime and drugs to run rampant along the Southern border, America becomes less and less safe. The lawlessness has gone on for far too long.
I will continue to call for more support for Border Patrol and shine a light on this devastating humanitarian crisis, but it's becoming increasingly clear that these failed policies are willful and intentional. As a member of the House Oversight Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, I am pursuing answers from President Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the relentless surge of illegal immigration and drug trafficking CBP has endured under their vision and leadership.
