Border crossings down in February
Recent numbers show unlawful entries from 4 nations fell from 84,190 in December to 2,050
Border restrictions set by the Biden administration in early January have led to a large drop in the number of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants crossing into the United States illegally this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data released Wednesday.
Unlawful crossings by migrants from the four nations fell from 84,190 in December to 2,050 during February, CBP data shows.
The figures provide a boost to Biden administration officials at a time when their border measures are facing court challenges and scalding criticism from Republicans and Democrats.
The Republican opposition was visible at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Wednesday in McAllen, Texas, an event whose stated purpose was to blame Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for provoking a crisis at the border. Republicans took turns excoriating the administration for the record migration influx during President Joe Biden’s first two years in office.
Democratic members skipped the meeting entirely, accusing Republicans of staging a platform to “score political points,” as some members of the president’s party have slammed Biden for adopting enforcement policies they liken to those of the Trump administration.
Biden has taken a turn toward the political center on immigration enforcement this year, moves that appear designed in part to shore up a political vulnerability for the White House ahead of the 2024 election. The administration is also bracing for a potential migration surge after May 11, the date it has set for the expiration of pandemic-related health restrictions along the border.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told Republicans during Wednesday’s hearing that a lack of enforcement consequences, such as criminal prosecutions and repatriations, fuels unlawful crossings and hurts border security.
Republicans repeatedly asked Ortiz, an Army veteran who has been with the Border Patrol for more than three decades, to say whether Biden’s policies were to blame for the record number of illegal crossings tallied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the president’s first two years in office. Ortiz said migration trends respond to “push and pull” factors that include global economic trends as well as migrants’ perceptions of how much risk they face of being returned.
“Law enforcement’s pretty simple,” Ortiz said. “You have to have capacity, and you have to have consequences. And any time you don’t have consequences, you’re certainly going to see some increases.”
Some Republicans questioned Ortiz about the discovery of what they called an explosive device on the border in January. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Border Patrol agents were “at risk of being blown to pieces by the cartels.” Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, asked why nobody told Congress or the American public about it.
Ortiz at first said he could not provide information about the alleged incident. He later tweeted agents had found “a duct-taped ball filled with sand.” He posted a photo and said the discovery never posed a threat.
Rep. J. Luis Correa, D-Calif., a member of the Homeland Security Committee and ranking Democrat of the subcommittee on border security, said he avoided the hearing because it felt partisan, not a joint effort to shape immigration policy. Correa said that this week he visited the Texas border city of Laredo, where he saw migrants from Ecuador at a detention facility facing possible deportation.
“You saw their hope and their desperation,” he said. “If you give people the opportunity to come into the country legally, they will take that opportunity.”