Top Border Patrol officials said officers are “overwhelmed” by the influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border, a spiraling “crisis” that intensified this week when a firefight broke out between rival cartel gangs in a Texas town.
“A week ago I wouldn’t have called this a crisis. Today it lives up to the definition. We are overwhelmed, ”Brandon Judd, chairman of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Wednesday evening.
“We don’t have the means to stop the cartels from bringing in illegal aliens, bringing in drugs, that’s why we’re basically in a crisis,” he added.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said he had no plans to travel to the southern border “at this point” amid a wave of migrants.
Instead, Biden delivered a blunt message to migrants thinking of crossing the border, saying, “Don’t come by” at the request of ABC News presenter George Stephanopoulos.
“Don’t leave your city, town or community,” he added.
A senior CBP official told Fox the situation is unsustainable.
“The president understands it is a crisis and so he told migrants not to come,” the official told the network on condition of anonymity.
By reversing former President Donald Trump’s border initiatives, Biden unleashed a flood of illegal migrants at the border, including thousands of unaccompanied children.
In his first month in office, he finished construction of Trump’s signature border wall and began ending the “Stay in Mexico” policy, according to which approximately 71,000 Central American asylum seekers in Mexico were awaiting rulings.
More than 4,000 migrant children were held by the Border Patrol on Sunday, with at least 3,000 in custody for longer than the 72-hour limit set by a court order, a U.S. official told the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the border situation as “difficult,” but did not call it a crisis, Fox News said.
“The situation on the southwest border is difficult,” Mayorkas said. “We are working around the clock to manage it and we will continue to do so. That is our job. We are making progress and we are executing our plan. It will take time and we will not hesitate in our commitment to succeed. “
CBP officials made their comments when the news outlet reported that a shootout had broken out near Roma, a Texas community between two rival cartels.
Jaeson Jones, a former captain of the intelligence and counterterrorism division of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said “it is time” for the federal government to focus more on increasing cartel violence.
Jones told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that he regularly witnesses gunfights in the Mexican town of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, just across the Rio Grande from Roma, Fox News reported.
“That community has been at odds for the past two years between two cartels: Cartel del Golfo – The Gulf Cartel – and Cartel del Noreste – known by many people as Los Zetas,” Jones said.
