NOGALES, ARIZONA – The immigration debacle is taking its toll on the 60,000-plus members of the US Border Patrol, agents and former top officials told The Post.
According to Rodney Scott, the former chief of the Border Patrol, many border agents sit aghast as they process hundreds of adult males, mostly from Venezuela, with tattoos and tough manners.
“You know they are gang members, but there’s no database to pass them off and they won’t admit it so we can’t document them as gang members,” Scott told The Post. “They’re just getting released into the United States.”
Scott said that one officer told him: “I feel like I’m part of the smuggling organization.”
Scott and others told The Post that the simpler days when Border Patrol agents used to catch and deport migrants, and stop smugglers, mostly from Mexico are long gone — replaced by far more shrewd asylum seekers from other parts of the world. They added that cartels largely run the border now.
The situation is a stark contrast to just three years ago.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, in 2020, there were 646,822 encounters with undocumented border crossers nationwide. In 2022 it ballooned to 2,766,582; up till August, there have already been 2,860,127 in 2023.
But the numbers are just part of the story. Most of the undocumented border crossers are what Border Patrol agents call “give ups”— asylum seekers from all over the world who want to be detained so they can be processed and released, and likely receive aid from non-governmental agencies.
Still, not all border crossers are compliant, said former Texas Republican Congresswoman Mayra Flores, who is married to a Border Patrol officer. She recently posted to Facebook a photo of a bloodied agent from the Rio Grande Valley sector who was attacked by a violent migrant.
The agent is currently stable and recuperating, but it could have been far worse, Flores said. Just a few years ago she did not worry about her husband’s work — but now she fears for him and makes sure he dons his protective vest and doesn’t go on patrol by himself.
“It has gotten worse because of the cartels which are giving them more power. The Southern border has gotten worse. There is more violence,” Flores said.
Assistant Commissioner Erin Waters of the CBP Office of Public Affairs said that all violent incidents and allegations are taken very seriously.
“CBP has made tremendous strides improving oversight and training, and reducing incidents involving the use of force. CBP strives to carry out its homeland security and law enforcement mission with the highest standards of honor, integrity and professionalism,” Waters said.
But Brandon Judd, head of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for agents, predicted that, with the huge increase of crossers, use-of-force encounters are going to go up.
“That’s to be expected. What’s frustrating to us is knowing that this could be stopped. That this doesn’t have to happen,” Judd told The Post. “Knowing that the reason that we’re dealing with 9,000 people rather than 1,200 people is all based upon policy. Knowing that this doesn’t have to be this way.”
Morale is further wounded by the rising influx of migrants from all over the world turning border officers into desk clerks, said Scott.
“It demoralizes us knowing that we’re supposed to be patrolling the border. We’re supposed to be out there trying to protect the American people and we can’t do that because we’re not performing patrol duties,” Judd agreed. “We’re not out there actively doing law enforcement duties — we’re doing administrative duties. We’re not protecting the American people.”
Scott said that many agents, instead of patrolling the border looking for drug smugglers or possible terrorists, now mostly do what they call “processing” — booking “give ups” and releasing them with a court date, which can be up to three years from their arrest and detainment.
According to a Congressional report released by House Republicans Monday, “Because of the unprecedented border crisis, some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have been forced to abandon arrests and removals of aliens, including criminal aliens, to process the illegal aliens who have arrived at the southwest border.”
Trained by Non-governmental agencies (NGOs) or by the cartels, thousands of the “catch and release” asylum seekers — most of the migrants who turn themselves in to Border Patrol — know what to say and do in order to get detained and released without a fuss, Scott said.
But there can still be danger, he added.
“These people, literally, they’ve been coached on how to take advantage of this system,” Scott said. “They’re going to be compliant — and then all of a sudden, they’re not.”
Overall, attrition for agents is down for 2023 compared to the same time period in 2022, Waters said, dropping to 6.1% from 6.8%.
The USBP is undergoing the same recruitment and retention challenges that all of US law enforcement has been dealing with in the last few years, Waters said, and is trying to lure military veterans to join the ranks, holding two events per month at military institutions.
Said Flores: “I’m really, really concerned about the future of our country with everything that is happening right now. I’m from Mexico, and the United States is the greatest country in the world. There is no other America. We have to protect it.”
