The head of the US Border Patrol said the crisis at the southern border is a “threat to national security” that “keeps him awake at night” in a new interview during which he explained the danger posed by the millions of illegal immigrants who have entered the border. country in recent years.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said during a meeting with CBS News that what concerns him most are the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who have not been detained or processed at the border on their way to the United States.
The US Border Patrol is just days away from reaching one million migrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2024, which began for the US government last October.
“What keeps me up at night is the 140,000 that escaped,” Owens said — the number of migrants who have slipped into the country undetected since October.
‘Why are they hiding? What do they have to hide? What are they bringing? What is your intention? Where are they coming from?’ Owens explained that these are USBP’s main concerns about the fugitives, whose backgrounds and locations are virtually unknown to the government.
‘We just don’t know the answers to those questions. Those things to us are what pose the threat to our communities,’ she stated.
Illegal migrants pass through barbed wire as they forcibly enter the United States across the southern border on March 21, 2024.
Owens said his department is on track to record about two million arrests by the time the fiscal year ends in September.
The chief said, “border security is a big part of national security,” and illegal immigrants being smuggled into the country are “exploiting a vulnerability” the nation faces today.
He said the immigrants who came to the United States this year come from at least 160 different countries, some of which are many continents away.
Routes from Europe and Asia lead to the Darien Gap in Panama, a popular launching point for smugglers leading large groups of migrants north through Central America and eventually into the United States, Owens said.
When asked, he added that the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States is “absolutely” driven by the cartels, which “set the rules of engagement” at the border.
During the interview, the 25-year USBP veteran called for tougher immigration policies, something the Biden administration has been struggling to achieve.
‘I’m talking about jail time. “I mean being expelled from the country and I mean being prohibited from returning because he chose to come illegally instead of the established legal avenues that we established for him,” he said.
Despite taking that position, Owens also acknowledged that he believes most immigrants who enter the United States illegally are “good people” who “come across because they are fleeing terrible conditions or they are economic immigrants seeking a better way of life.” . .’
“I would like them to choose the right way to enter our country and not start off on the wrong foot by violating our laws,” he said.
U.S. National Guard personnel reinforce a concertina wire-covered fence near migrants at the border with Mexico on March 23, 2024
A different group of immigrants entering Texas try to take down the barbed wire separating them from the US.
President Joe Biden, center, surveys the southern border. USBP Chief Jason Owens (center left) guides you here on February 29, 2024.
US National Guard personnel reinforce a fence covered in concertina wire near migrants on the border with Mexico
In an aerial view, migrants wait under an international bridge after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico and passing through coils of barbed wire on March 17, 2024 in Eagle Pass, Texas.
The United States is expected to have to deal with a total number of at least 8 million asylum seekers and migrants who have crossed the southern border in September.
The staggering figure represents the pattern of increasing border crossings over the past half-decade and underscores the challenges facing what is an outdated and underfunded immigration system.
The vast majority of the 8 million are now free to roam America’s streets, including 2 million “high priority” cases of career criminals seeking asylum.
The system is collapsing under the weight of the rapid number of migrants crossing the border, which reached an all-time high of 302,000 monthly crossings in December, according to the most recently released data.
The delay has left millions of immigrants currently residing in the United States unsure whether they will be allowed to stay or be deported, although the Biden Administration has apparently taken an anti-deportation stance.
Immigrants who cross the border are often forced to wait several years for a decision on their applications. Meanwhile, they are released into the countryside, where they build their homes.
Recent data suggests that the backlog of migrants awaiting decisions has increased during President Joe Biden’s term, a reflection of the difficulties his administration has faced in addressing the unprecedented influx of migrants.
At the end of fiscal year 2023, more than 6 million migrants were registered in what officials call the “non-detainee file.”