Allowing foreigners to enter the US and be quickly released into the country is encouraging record numbers of illegal immigrants, officials contend.
Nine Customs and Border Patrol agents told Congressional investigators that the lack of consequences for crossing the U.S. border illegally is to blame for the historic surge of illegal immigrants pouring into the United States, according to transcript excerpts obtained by The Epoch Times.
Investigators on the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committees conducted the interviews earlier this year, over the course of five months. The Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) interviewees included nine supervisory and line agents assigned to duty at key border stations from California to Texas.
While both Democrat and Republican staffers took part in the questioning, the excerpts provided to The Epoch Times were selected by the Republicans. The Epoch Times has requested the full transcripts of the interviews. Committee Democrats did not respond to a request for comment.
“We wanted to interview these agents due to their deep expertise as Border Patrol agents and the experience their senior positions afforded them to speak about operations in their sectors,” a Republican committee spokesman told The Epoch Times.
The agents were not questioned under oath and appeared voluntarily after being reminded that it is illegal to provide false information to Congress.
At the heart of the issues described in the interviews is President Joe Biden’s reversal of immigration policies instituted by his predecessor, President Donald Trump. Republicans credit President Trump’s policies for reducing the flow of illegal immigrants.
One of the Trump policies was a requirement for people seeking to enter the United States to remain in Mexico, pending resolution of their cases. Another policy required strictly enforcing anti-drug and other criminal statutes against illegal immigrants. The Trump administration also began, and made significant progress on, building a border wall, and induced Mexico to use its law enforcement and military resources to block migrant caravans at that country’s southern border with Belize and Guatemala.
