The Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli said border agents feel that “there isn’t a morale” among them as a Trump-era immigration policy is set to expire next month.
“I think they actually feel bad, as what they’ve construed to me, because they’re letting so many people out. They don’t know how many people are getting away, [not] getting arrested,” Giaritelli said Monday on One America News Network, referencing her recent exclusive sharing sentiments from six U.S. Border Patrol employees.
“They don’t feel like they’re doing their job, and … they don’t even want to be told, ‘Thank you,’ because they feel like they’re not doing anything,” she added.
NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: BORDER PATROL AGENTS REVEAL FEARS ABOUT COLLAPSE OF TITLE 42
Under Title 42, noncitizens seeking asylum at ports of entry and those illegally crossing are to be immediately expelled back into Mexico. Border Patrol agents were instructed not to take them into custody to prevent the spread of the virus in law enforcement facilities.
The policy ends on Dec. 21, and agents are bracing for a monumental migration event.
“Obviously, administrations change policies here and there, but they just feel this is such an unprecedented change,” Giaritelli told In Focus host Addison Smith.
“There’s just no understanding of how to go forward,” she said, especially as the Biden administration no longer uses government facilities to hold and detain immigrants, opting instead to use hotels.
As the policy ends, more agents will be brought in from the northern border and coastal regions to help with processing, interviewing, and fingerprinting, but what happens from there is “kind of wait and see.” As Republican lawmakers criticize the Biden administration for what they consider a “border crisis,” Giaritelli pointed out that part of the problem is not having a definition for the term “crisis.”
“Without a definition, we don’t really have a way to prove it,” she said.
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Giaritelli explained that what happens at the border seems to be one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things.
“I think only really Border Patrol agents have a full understanding because they’re seeing it day after day after day,” she said.
Under the Obama administration, then-Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said a crisis at the border meant 1,000 people being arrested per day, Giaritelli noted. Now, the United States apprehends anywhere from 6,000-7,000 detainees.
Officials are forecasting that there could be as many as 18,000 people arrested per day.
“There’s this massive surge of people who, under Title 42, instead of being taken into custody, possibly released into the country — which Republicans don’t want. People are just being literally turned around and pushed back into Mexico,” she said.
“Those people are amassing and ready for Title 42 to end. … They see it as their final chance to get in [and] maybe make an asylum claim,” Giaritelli said.
