Border Patrol chiefs of nine sectors along the US-Mexico frontier have warned a House committee about the “unprecedented” number of illegal migrant crossings that occurred in 2023 — and the threat it presents to the safety of both American citizens and the migrants themselves.
Depositions taken by the House Homeland Security Committee show the veteran officials differed in their assessment of the causes of the historic border surge — but agreed both on the humanitarian dangers and national security concerns, according to transcripts of their remarks reviewed by The Post.
“I wasn’t expecting to see the numbers go like that. It never had happened before in the Big Bend Sector,” Chief Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin said of his Texas region in an April 25 interview.
“Certainly not unprecedented to see a surge or spike,” Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Dustin Caudle of the Yuma Sector in Arizona told the House panel on Sept. 28. “The volume that we’re seeing recently, in my opinion, in my career [what] I’ve seen is what I would consider unprecedented.”
“Tucson, because of the incredible amount of heat out there, the summer months tend to be very low,” Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin testified on July 26 of his sector in Arizona. “What’s happening now — that is unheard of.”
“I looked at 10 years of data to what the summer months should be,” he added. “[W]e should have about 17,000 apprehensions in July, you know, given 10 years of data aggregated. Instead we’re at 26,000. So this time of year, the most dangerous time of year, is seeing one of the most significant flows that we’ve seen.”
Modlin said the uptick has been “demoralizing” to him and his agents, who he said are fighting “to keep the border as secure” as they can.
Several interviews took place before the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era health policy that allowed for rapid expulsions, but chiefs anticipated fiscal year 2023 border crossings would surpass the record reached in the previous year.
Chief Jason Owens, who oversaw the Del Rio Sector in Texas for “most of last year” before being elevated, said his region “led the nation day to day in terms of apprehensions,” which was “the first year that [encounters] had surpassed the Rio Grande Valley Sector.”
“At the end of the fiscal year, we finished off FY ’22 [Oct. 1, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2022] with just over 480,000 apprehensions and right around 200,000 known ‘gotaways,’” Owens said, referencing migrants who enter the country illegally without being caught.
“In fiscal year ’21, it was busier than the previous 9 fiscal years combined for the Del Rio Sector,” he told House committee staff during his May 9 deposition.
“This year so far, it has been the Rio Grande Valley Sector, El Paso Sector, and Tucson Sector that have been, on a day to day basis, busier than we are. That’s leading up to May 11th [when Title 42 ended], and we don’t know what’s going to happen after that.”
Owens added that while migrants have traveled to the US “for economic reasons” since he started in the agency in the 1990s, most were barred from entry and opted for “voluntary return” to Mexico before trying to re-enter.
Many migrants have been “hopeful” about their pathway to US citizenship, San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke told the House Homeland Security Committee during his interview, which he attributed to President Biden’s policies.
But Heitke added that the unprecedented numbers of migrant crossings threaten the safety of Americans and pose risks to illegal aliens.
Customs and Border Protection data reveal agents encountered more than 2.4 million migrants on the southwest border in fiscal year 2023, breaking the all-time high of roughly 2.3 million migrant encounters set in fiscal year 2022.
At least 172 individuals who were stopped by border agents in the last fiscal year were found to be on the FBI’s terrorism watch list, though little has been disclosed about their cases to Congress, prompting alarm from lawmakers.
Border crossings have also strained federal enforcement capabilities and detention facilities, according to the chief patrol agents, as well as funding for non-governmental groups that care for migrants.
Government costs for nationwide housing and care could reach $451 billion annually for apprehended migrants and known “gotaways” who have entered the US since 2021, according to a House Homeland Security Committee report released earlier this month.
In recent congressional testimony, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed more than 600,000 “gotaways” evaded detection by border agents in fiscal year 2023, claiming that has been an issue for “decades” and represents “a powerful example of a broken immigration system.”
Another 900,000 migrants entered the country legally from the southwest border under humanitarian parole in the last fiscal year, permitting them to apply for asylum.
CBP has rolled out several policies to try to expedite the process for asylum seekers, including expansions to a phone app that debuted under former President Donald Trump as well as a mandate for migrants to apply for entry into any third safe country they travel through on the way to the US.
When Title 42 ended in May, the Biden administration also unveiled a Family Expedited Removal Management Program to fast-track deportations, but reports show the majority of migrants in the program are still released into the US while they await adjudication.
The Department of Homeland Security resumed direct repatriation flights for Venezuelan nationals in October, a policy that Mayorkas recently told Congress was “a very powerful example” of the kind of reforms needed.
“The asylum system needs to be reformed from top to bottom,” Mayorkas also affirmed.
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) pressed the Cabinet secretary, asking whether “a more immediate consequence” for other “recalcitrant countries” would “get an immediate drop in numbers.
“Things haven’t changed in Venezuela, but they’ve changed in how we’re applying that policy,” Lankford emphasized. “And we saw a dramatic decrease in the numbers there.”
“Senator, our model is to build lawful pathways and to deliver consequences for individuals who did not avail themselves of those lawful pathways,” Mayorkas responded. “Our ability to repatriate individuals to the countries of origin when they do not qualify for relief under our laws is a vital importance.”