Border Patrol presentation reveals plan to mass release illegal crossers into US communities

By Bethany Blankley (The Center Square)

Roughly six weeks before testifying Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez held a meeting with local law enforcement officials in Weslaco, Texas, to outline the administration’s plan to release mass illegal aliens into the U.S. while Title 42 is in place. ended

The Biden administration tried to end Title 42, a public health authority first enacted under the Trump administration at the height of the pandemic, but Texas sued and a federal court in December blocked it from ending the administration.

Several people who attended the Dec. 20 meeting recorded it and provided the audio transcript to The Center Square on condition of anonymity for fear of administration retaliation. Chavez went to take a phone call for more briefings, and two other longtime Border Patrol agents gave presentations.

Chavez leads the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, one of the most heavily trafficked areas. At the time, agents in all nine southern border zones were encountering more than 50,000 foreign nationals a week at the border, he said.

He said Border Patrol agents were taking an average of 15,000 illegal aliens into custody every day in December, with some zones at 150% capacity.

“It is expected that we will see an increase in flow and parole” in the RGV sector, he said. The sector receives about 20 flights and eight busloads of illegal aliens a week from Yuma, Arizona and El Paso and Del Rio in Texas because its facilities hold too many people.

According to data obtained by The Center Square, Border Patrol apprehensions and reported shipments in December topped 300,000 in US history.

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At the December 20 meeting, one of the border agents said, “Everything has changed in the last two years. In the last two years the entire landscape has changed, not only with entries, but the demographics and types of people who are abusing the immigration process,” according to an audio recording obtained by The Center Square.

Because people are coming in, the agent said, “more people will be processed for release because we can’t keep up.” Holding facilities in Del Rio, El Paso, Yuma and El Centro are more than 100% capacity, the agent said. Four out of the nine South West Frontier zones are in the red, nearing 150% capacity, he said.

It arrested the largest number of Cubans and Nicaraguans in US history, he said, adding, “How do you arrest more Cubans than Mexicans?” He found out that Cubans were flying across the southwest border into Mexico to seek asylum because they would be deported when they got to Florida.

“From fiscal year 2021 to 2022 there are cities in Mexico where people say they’re going to look for smugglers who charge less to bring them across the Rio Grande,” he said, adding, “Texas has the most traffic in exit points.”

Single, military-age men make up 70% of illegal entries, making it difficult to deal with security concerns, he said. They’re seeing armed men — 17 Border Patrol agents were assaulted last year, “the most.” [number] We saw,” he said.

By spring, he said, all of the aerostats, the balloons capable of surveillance, would be out of service because they would no longer be funded. They also served as important “force multipliers,” he said, helping agents detect evasion and other interception efforts.

“When the Mexican team realizes they’re on top,” he said, “activity drops.” Without an aerostat in the air, cartels have a greater ability to evade law enforcement.

The “drug of choice” coming through the southern border is “illegal fentanyl,” the agent said, with the highest volumes seized in the RGV sector, followed by the largest seizure of 3,000 pounds of liquid meth last year.

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When asked by one participant who is transporting illegal foreign nationals north on buses and letting people out at local gas stations in local communities, Lozi said it is his non-governmental organization (NGO) partners. However, “there needs to be better coordination from NGOs to get back to the border patrol to let us know where they are being dropped off,” he said. Once they are released to the US, there is no tracking mechanism to know their whereabouts.

“There’s no way the Border Patrol could go without you,” the agent told Law Enforcement, thanking them for partnering with BP agents. He said the agency is “working with resilience to deal with multiple suicides; one in Brownsville, two in Corpus and another in the Weslaco area. We haven’t seen any suicides. [among Border Patrol agents] First at this speed.

“If you see an agent, know an agent, give them a pat on the back, they need our support now more than ever.”

Upon his return, Chávez closed the briefing by saying he was coordinating with local mayors and NGOs to evacuate people to the US, saying the NGOs were “extraordinary.” She was “learning about specific areas [the counties] We want them released,” referring to those released to the U.S. by the Biden administration.

Chavez testified before the US House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday.

Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.