The vice-president of the National Border Patrol Council said on Friday the Department of Homeland Security’s new strategy to address the over 10,000 Haitians amassing in the Del Rio sector of South Texas will leave gaps in border security in Arizona.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a 6-part plan officially on Saturday.
“First, within the next 24-48 hours, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will have surged 400 agents and officers to the Del Rio sector to improve control of the area,” announced DHS. “If additional staff is needed, more will be sent. The Del Rio Port of Entry has temporarily closed, and traffic is being re-routed from Del Rio to Eagle Pass to more effectively manage resources and ensure uninterrupted flow of trade and travel.”
#Agents encountered a group of 102 migrants north of the international boundary fence near San Miguel, #Arizona. More than 50 were unaccompanied migrants from Guatemala. pic.twitter.com/GKkeOLVvRk
— Sabri Y. Dikman (@USBPChiefTCA) September 17, 2021
At the same time DHS is pulling agents away from Arizona, cartels doing business through Arizona are not slowing down.
In an interview on the James T. Harris show on News Talk 550 KFYI, Art del Cueto, vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the border is “out of control.”
Del Cueto said that while the images of the Haitians show a federal government that has lost control, “what is going on behind the scenes” make the situation “even much worse.”
“It affects Arizona, it affects our country, it is going to affect, it is going to affect future generations. They are having to send agents from Tucson Sector out there to help out with processing,” said del Cueto referring to Texas. “So, what is that going to do? It is going to – once again – make more gaps on our borders in Arizona, which will now help out the cartels bring people across. The judge has just decided that they can’t use Title 42, so what that is going to do is make it even worse for some of the children.”
Title 42 allows the United States Border Patrol and U.S. Customs to prohibit the entry of persons who potentially pose a health risk, either by virtue of being subject to previously announced travel restrictions or because they unlawfully entered the country to bypass health screening measures.
On September 16, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia enjoined all expulsions of illegal migrants from the United States under CDC orders issued under Title 42. The judge stayed that order to give the Biden administration the chance to seek review.
Del Cueto explained that without Title 42, the cartels will “start renting out kids” to migrants, “knowing full-well that if they cross with a child they are going to get released,” into the U.S. “So, it’s a huge domino effect. It almost reminds you of that old cartoon where that man is trying to stop the holes in the dam with his fingers and it just cracks after cracks, but in this case, it is this administration that is causing those cracks.”
Del Cueto said earlier this year people kept asking if we were experiencing a crisis on the border. At the time, del Cueto said he did believe the large influx of unaccompanied minors and families was creating a crisis.
“Not too long ago, heck it was less than a year ago,” said del Cueto referring to the crisis conditions. “We haven’t even had a year of this administration and its beyond that. Its chaotic. Its completely out of control.”
Del Cueto said it is going to get worse due in large part to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate. Del Cueto said the mandate will drive agents to go elsewhere.
“Now you’re looking at the mandates for all Border Patrol agents to have to take the vaccine, which my phone has blown up since that news came out with agents saying ‘look, we’re hearing that they are not going to be lenient on medical waivers. They are not going to be lenient at all on religious exemptions.’ So, agents are saying I’m going to have to quit. I am going to have to leave this job, this career, and it is all because of this administration.”
“So, you are going to lose more agents because they are not going to take the vaccine,” explained del Cueto. “ You are going to lose agents in Arizona because they are sending them to Texas to take care of the groups of thousands that are coming across. So, now you’re opening gaps in Arizona where now you’re going to have hundreds of thousands of people coming in that have criminal records knowing that there are going to be gaps in our border and the drug cartels are going to run rampant. Fentanyl, heroin, cocaine – that is what we’ve been seeing and that is exactly how bad it is going to be.”
While the vaccine mandate is putting at risk our border security, migrants are coming across with virtually no vaccination history, according to del Cueto.
“You are seeing thousands upon thousands of people that are turning themselves in at the border and getting released in the United States and no question as to any of their vaccines is being asked. And I’m not just talking about Covid vaccines, right? They’re not asking them if they’ve had the Measles vaccine, Polio, HepC, Tuberculosis, nothing. So, you are going to tell me that you have to have agents with the vaccine in order to protect the American public?”
In August, Governor Doug Ducey extended the Arizona National Guard’s border security mission for one year in response to increasing public safety concerns. The border mission will continue with the $25 million in funding from the FY 2022 budget passed by the Arizona State Legislature this year.
The governor accused the Biden administration of “utterly” failing to secure the border, citing the fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported “a stunning 21-year record high number of illegal border crossings and the Biden-Harris administration comes under bipartisan criticism for its failures at the border.”
Three Points Station #BorderPatrol agents encountered a group of 127 migrants near San Miguel, #AZ. There were 82 unaccompanied children from Guatemala, and 92 total. Migrants from Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua made up the remainder of the group. pic.twitter.com/5YLdD3UECo
— Sabri Y. Dikman (@USBPChiefTCA) September 15, 2021