‘Release Everybody’: Former Top Border Officials Pour Cold Water On Biden’s Plan After Trump-Era Expulsions Stop

‘Release Everybody’: Former Top Border Officials Pour Cold Water On Biden’s Plan After Trump-Era Expulsions Stop

Jennie Taer on May 1, 2023

• Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting commissioner Mark Morgan and retired Deputy Patrol Agent in Charge of the El Paso Station Clay Thomas believe that the Biden administration’s new policies to address a surge of migration when Title 42 ends still allows for many migrants who cross the southern border to be released and face little consequences, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the new measures Thursday to address what will happen post-May 11, when Title 42 ends.
• “What they’re doing is not going to prevent anything. It’s simply going to be more of the same to react to what’s happening. And part of the reaction to what’s happening is going to be to continue to process and release illegal aliens,” Morgan told the DCNF.

Two former top border officials believe that the Biden administration’s plan to mitigate the flow of illegal immigration at the southern border when Title 42, a major Trump-era public health policy used to expel certain migrants, ends won’t effectively stem the surge or improve the situation, they told Daily Caller News Foundation.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken jointly unveiled the plan Thursday to address a surge in illegal immigration they’re expecting when Title 42 ends. Migrants who cross the southern border will still largely be released into the interior of the country, former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting Commissioner Mark Morgan and retired Deputy Patrol Agent in Charge of the El Paso Station Clay Thomas told the DCNF.

“What they’re doing is not going to prevent anything. It’s simply going to be more of the same to react to what’s happening. And part of the reaction to what’s happening is going to be to continue to process and release illegal aliens,” Morgan said.

Harsher penalties, such as a five-year ban on entry proposed by DHS for crossing the border illegally, will make no difference because too many are making fraudulent claims that allow them to make cases to stay in the U.S., Morgan said.

“We know the overwhelming majority of individuals that come that file asylum are economic migrants, meaning it’s not a valid asylum claim. We know that. Everybody knows that. But, yet, they’re still allowing them to come in and file knowingly fraudulent claims and then be released in United States,” Morgan said.

Thomas, who managed the first Border Patrol station to carry out Title 42 expulsions, also says the plan is not going work.

“It is not effective. And it will only be effective for a certain amount of time and we’re going to be right back to where we’re at. We’re gonna release everybody,” Thomas said.

“None of this is a change in policy,” Thomas said.

Border Patrol recorded more than 2.2 million at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, which was up from more than 1.6 million in fiscal year 2021 and roughly 400,000 in fiscal year 2020, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics.

One of the changes the Biden administration is making will allow migrants to see a judge while in DHS custody. However, with the ongoing surge, immigration judges are not readily available already to address cases that take years to adjudicate, Thomas said.

“This is nothing different than what they tried to do in the past. It didn’t work. It works for about two weeks, and then it doesn’t. Because there’s no way there’s enough judges, there’s no way there’s enough CIS personnel,” Thomas told the DCNF.

“We had CIS [Citizenship and Immigration Services] stationed in my office to do these interviews, they’re lengthy interviews, they’re time consuming. We had the worst trouble in the world trying to get legal counsel for these folks because there’s not enough immigration attorneys in the world that are willing to do this kind of work for nothing or for very little,” Thomas said.

The lack of holding capacity will also force Border Patrol to have to release migrants. The Biden administration plans to beef up its reliance on the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program to rely on tracking released migrants with ankle monitors and cell phones for those released.

In his experience, Thomas said he’s seen migrants trash the technology and abscond from the program. Between fiscal year 2015 to a portion of fiscal year 2020, the average absconsion rate for ATD participants was 84%, according to a leaked memo obtained by Fox News in April 2022.

The post-Title 42 plan also includes erecting migrant processing centers in Colombia and Guatemala, but it remains unclear how migrants who are told they qualify to legally immigrate to the U.S. will actually get there.

“So then you get approved, then you can still make the trip. And if you already had money to fly, you just fly up. If you already had a trip through paid by the cartels, you just would do that. And then if you get approved, then you’re going to do the same thing. So there’s there’s missing parts to that,” Thomas said.

The Biden administration says it will increase removal flights of illegal immigrants from the U.S., which will be costly and will be at the mercy of other countries willing to accept them, Thomas said.

“Flights are expensive. Even if you multiply the flights by 100, you would still get overwhelmed. Let’s use Guatemala, if you’re talking about, let’s say you’re upping it to 10 flights a week to Guatemala. You’re talking about 150 people per flight, give or take. So it’s 10 flights, that’s 1500 people. There are stations caching 10,000 people a week,” Thomas said.

Thomas recalled his tenure in Border Patrol, when Cuba and Brazil turned away flights of their own citizens that the U.S. attempted to return. He predicts this will happen again.

“You can have 50 flights lined up for one country but then the country doesn’t want to accept them,” Thomas said.

The Biden administration’s policies to address the influx in illegal migration continues to be reactive, Morgan said, adding that it’s a big mistake.

“What people should know is that will actually do nothing to stem the flow of illegal immigration or those filing fraudulent claims, and therefore the flow will not stop and our border will remain unsecure,” Morgan told the DCNF.

DHS didn’t respond to a request for comment.