A top official for U.S. Border Patrol’s labor union warned Friday that the ongoing government shutdown will make it harder for border officials to respond to thousands of families, children, and sick migrants at the southern border.
National Border Patrol Council Vice President At-Large Hector Garza on Friday said the money congressional Democrats refuse to give President Trump for border wall enhancements is also holding up basic funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which is coping with a humanitarian crisis at the moment.
In recent months, a record-high number of Central Americans are migrating to the U.S. and trying to illegally enter at remote parts of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Some of these kids need medical checkups,” Garza told Fox News. “Well, fund border security. Give us the money so we can do our job. Give us our paychecks. Give us the proper money so we can have the resources so we can train Border Patrol agents as paramedics.”
“As it is, we have a lot of agents that are certified as paramedics so we can provide that medical attention to people coming into our custody,” Garza said.
Garza said he supports President Trump’s call for border wall funding, which is opposed by Democrats. That opposition has prevented Congress from passing a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and other departments.
In December, two young children traveling from Guatemala died after having entered New Mexico as part of large groups. The deaths marked the first in a decade, prompting Democrats to launch investigations into the incidents.
During the last week of December, CBP began referring hundreds of migrants to medical professionals. More than 250 migrant children of 451 who were taken into custody over a nine-day period were referred to medical professionals for care.
The Coast Guard said this week it has temporarily deployed three medical teams of three members each to Border Patrol sectors in Yuma, Ariz., El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Ariz.
It’s a small step, and the Coast Guard said it does not know how long the teams will remain deployed. Its personnel are among the few DHS employees being paid during the shutdown.
The surge of families arriving at the southern border does not show any signs of slowing down, according to Cristobal Ramon, a policy analyst with the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank’s Immigration Project. He said CBP’s recent steps to call in medical staff from the Coast Guard, a Department of Homeland Security component, was wise.
“They [CBP] were operating on the same assumptions of past migrant patterns. Now they’re trying to shift to reality. I’m giving them a lot of credit on taking these temporary steps, increasing staff to work with these populations,” Ramon said in a phone interview this week.
Ramon said boosting personnel was the easiest fix until additional funding for other projects is approved.
“The mid- to long-term challenge is really going to be on boosting infrastructure,” Ramon said, referring to roads and facilities in remote areas that cannot hold hundreds of people at a time. “Unfortunately, it’s not just something they can wave with a wand. That’s something I think that needs to be taken on in the next Congress.”
CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan made a similar point this week.
“Border Patrol stations built decades ago are not resourced to handle this crisis and are not the best facilities to house children with their parents for extended periods,” McAleenan said.
Over the past couple years, those caught illegally entering the U.S. are more likely to be Central American families and children, and not adult men from Mexico.
“What changed in ’16 was — in addition to the dynamics around the election — the fact that a district court judge in the Central District of California made an updated ruling interpreting the Flores settlement from the Ninth [Circuit] and that included the decision that accompanied children like unaccompanied children could not remain in DHS custody for more than 20 days,” McAleenan told reporters in June.
Previously, Border Patrol would refer a person who was apprehended to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation. Now, large percentages of those arriving at the border are required to go through asylum proceedings.
In November, more than half of all illegal entrants were Central American families who did not want to seek refuge in Mexico and did not apply for asylum in their home countries.
Due to ICE’s shortage of housing for the growing population, families were released into the United States. DHS said last year, 99 percent of families who entered the U.S. illegally remain in the country due to low rates of showing at immigration court proceedings.
