EXCLUSIVE — Border Patrol agents are divided but overwhelmingly dismissive of a Republican proposal to restart Trump-era immigration protocols at the southern border, such as turning away and detaining immigrants who enter the country illegally.
Seven federal law enforcement agents who spoke with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday were intrigued by the idea of immediately expelling border crossers back into Mexico without giving them a chance to seek asylum, but most were either distrusting that the Biden administration would follow through or said doing so would not be enough to stop the roughly 10,000 being arrested each day.
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"Well, it’s better than what we have right now. I think about it this way, you can give a starving dog the cheapest piece of meat and he’ll be happy. Why? Cause it’s still better than nothing at all. And right now, it seems like we’re not enforcing any laws," one agent in Texas wrote in a text message.
A second agent said it was "too little too late" following the 6 million who have been arrested at the border since Biden took office three years ago, more arrests than any period in history.
"I and other agents would say a little too late since this influx of illegal aliens has been happening throughout Biden's presidency at unprecedented numbers," a third agent, a senior regional official in West Texas, wrote in a text.
The White House gave Senate Democrats approval to move ahead on a potential deal that would entail returning to select immigration protocols in return for Republicans' support of an Israel-Ukraine supplemental funding bill, CBS News reported Tuesday.
A deal on the supplemental has been in the works for more than a month, with progressive Democrats calling for no compromise to GOP requirements that border security measures be added.
Border Patrol agents told the Washington Examiner that short of removing and deporting illegal immigrants to their home countries, they had no reason to believe the crisis would end.
"It might be quicker to deport them, but if there is no consequences, they will continue to come into the U.S.," said a fourth agent, who is based in California.
A fifth agent pointed out that Mexico would have to agree to accept immigrants back from the United States for Title 42 to work and that Mexico would also need to be willing to allow asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico through court proceedings for Title 42 to be effective.
"Great ideas, but we will see if they agree. Mexico has to agree also," said the fifth agent, a senior regional official in South Texas.
Detaining immigrants who cannot be returned across the border would come with its own difficulties. The fifth agent said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would also need funding from Congress to increase the amount of bed space it has to hold as many immigrants as may need to be detained.
"I don’t think it’s a good idea," a sixth agent wrote in a message. "We are limited to detaining anyone for more than 3 days. ... In reality it would cost the U.S. government more to keep them detained rather than releasing them or removing/deporting them. Remove/deport is the only fix."
But such a pivot would put President Joe Biden completely at odds with his campaign promises to end Title 42, the name of the pandemic public health policy that former President Donald Trump cited in March 2020 in order to turn away illegal immigrants rather than take them into custody. More than 2 million immigrants who were apprehended since 2021 have been released into the U.S. to wait several years before beginning court proceedings in which they may seek asylum.
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A seventh Border Patrol agent was skeptical that the Biden administration would follow through on such a deal.
"I don't believe for a second that they would actually hold up their end of that deal. They've made so many promises and statements that they just don't enforce over the last few years," the seventh agent said.