Senior DHS official says border is not ‘a success’

Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for the border said Tuesday that the chaos that’s reigned on the U.S.-Mexico boundary has not been “a success,” as he faced a grilling from congressional Republicans who said he’s running a “shell game” to hide just how bad conditions are.

Assistant Secretary Blas Nunez-Neto said the problems have been long standing, though he admitted illegal crossings have soared since President Biden took office.

“It is significantly higher,” he told the House Homeland Security Committee.

Pressed by Rep. August Pfluger, Texas Republican, on whether that sounded like a successful border, he acknowledged it did not.

“I don’t believe that what we have seen at the border is a success for anybody, going back more than a decade,” Mr. Nunez-Neto said.

“That might be the first answer that I’ve agreed with DHS on the border in the last three years,” Mr. Pfluger replied.

The exchange came in a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee, which is examining how the administration has handled the end of the coronavirus pandemic emergency and the expiration of the Title 42 border emergency expulsion power.

Mr. Nunez-Neto said the flow of illegal immigrants had slimmed, though the numbers also show that despite a lower flow, the majority of arrivals are still gaining a foothold in the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection says Border Patrol agents were nabbing about 3,400 people a day — down from more than 10,000 in the days just before the end of Title 42.

CBP officers manning ports of entry were encountering another 1,370 migrants a day who showed up without a visa to enter, for a total of 4,770 unauthorized migrants a day at the southern boundary.

Meanwhile the government had repatriated” roughly 1,700 migrants a day since the end of Title 42.

That means more than 60% of the new southern border arrivals are not being ousted.

Biden officials said they still consider the numbers a victory, both because the overall number of illegal crossers is down and because a large portion of those who are coming pre-schedule their arrivals at official border crossings.

That means they aren’t jumping the border and making Border Patrol agents chase them down, Mr. Nunez-Neto said. The administration has announced it is using its power of “parole” to allow many of them in, with the expectation they will apply for asylum at some point.

“DHS has made clear through these efforts that there are serious consequences for unlawful entry,” Mr. Nunez-Neto said.

Homeland Security, in its new numbers Tuesday, did not give a breakdown of the “repatriations,” so it’s not clear how many were formally deported.

Indeed, it’s likely that many of those are what’s known as “voluntary returns,” where a migrant is caught and agrees to be pushed back across the border without a formal deportation. They are then free to try to enter again.

In that respect, they are similar to the operations under Title 42, when illegal immigrants could be expelled back across the border without a formal deportation.

Mr. Higgins said those who are returned to Mexico quickly hook up with immigration-rights advocates who coach them on how to apply to come through the ports of entry using the pre-scheduled appointments through a smartphone app, known as CBP One.

“It’s a shell game,” he said

Mr. Nunez-Neto countered that people showing up at ports of entry are allowed to make asylum claims under U.S. law.

Republicans wondered where the limit was. Mr. Higgins said the outgoing chief of the Border Patrol told the committee that there are 657,000 migrants already in the pipeline heading toward the U.S.

Mr. Pfluger said the only thing that will deter them is to impose consequences for crossing the border without permission.

“There are no consequences, and without consequences there’s chaos,” he said.

Mr. Nunez-Neto put the burden back on Congress, saying only Capitol Hill can solve it.

“We need Congress to act here or there will never be a success on our border,” he said.

Mr. Pfluger pointed out that Republicans last month powered a major rewrite of immigration enforcement through the House, though the president has vowed to veto it.

Mr. Nunez-Neto said any law must be bipartisan.

“Neither party is going to solve this on its own,” he said.