Homeland Security said Monday that it will reduce or shut down some lanes of traffic at border crossings in Arizona and Texas to redeploy staff to handle a renewed surge of illegal immigrants.
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the ports of entry, blamed “smugglers peddling disinformation” for the surge of people.
The affected border crossings are Lukeville, Arizona, where CBP said it will throttle down vehicle processing, and International Bridge 1 in Eagle Pass, Texas, where all processing is being halted.
The agency, in an unsigned statement, said it needed to shift the officers who usually staff those posts to help Border Patrol agents, who patrol the miles in between the crossings and who have been overwhelmed by the crush of people coming over the last few years.
“The U.S. is continuing to see increased levels of migrant encounters at the Southwest Border, fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals and encourage migration,” CBP said. “As we respond with additional resources and apply consequences for unlawful entry, the migration trends shift as well.”
The agency did not say what the current level of illegal crossings was.
The shutdowns mean more pain for those looking to cross legally, as Homeland Security seeks to handle those coming illegally.
Homeland Security has been playing whack-a-mole with the border since the start of the Biden administration, which erased Trump-era get-tough policies and quickly saw a relatively calm border explode into chaos.
It’s been up and down since then, though even the best month under President Biden since spring 2021 would count as one of the worst months for any previous president.
Every time the administration says it’s made changes to solve the situation, a new crisis emerges at the border.
After a catastrophically bad September, CBP celebrated an improvement in October, arguing it had cut Border Patrol arrests along the southern boundary by 13%, with particularly big drops in key demographics near the end of the month.
But Monday’s announcement suggests things may be dipping into catastrophic territory again.
The news comes as Mr. Biden has asked Congress for $14 billion in emergency money for the border mess. He’s requesting money to hire more Border Patrol agents and expand deportations, though most of the money appears aimed at speeding up processing of illegal immigrants rather than deterring their arrival.
Republicans have said they will not approve the money unless it includes major changes to the administration’s policies, such as tighter restrictions on seeking and proving asylum claims.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.