DHS says surge of employees to the front lines is working to ramp up border enforcement

The Homeland Security Department is returning more of its personnel to the front lines as it implements President Biden’s new, restrictive border policies, which the administration now says is driving down crossings in the southwest. 

Encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have decreased by 40% to less than 2,400 per week since Biden issued his policy to immediately reject most migrants seeking entry into the county, DHS announced on Thursday. Federal agents and officers at the border have led the charge in turning away the migrants and deterring others from attempting to cross into the country, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, though he lamented his department is still woefully understaffed. 

The reduced apprehensions follow DHS seeing far fewer encounters in May and April compared to the same months in the previous two years. 

Border Patrol agents, Customs and Border Protection field officers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers and other federal personnel inside and outside DHS Have “done incredible work implementing the president’s executive actions and meeting the challenges at the border,” Mayorkas said in Tucson, Arizona. 

DHS staff have “quickly operationalized” Biden’s executive action, DHS added, driving the number of apprehensions at the border to their lowest level since January 2021. The new policy prevents migrants from seeking asylum during any period in which the average number of encounters is more than 1,500 per day, a figure DHS has far exceeded for years. 

As part of the implementation effort, Border Patrol has sent more agents to the field, which it said allows improved interdiction of individuals who threaten public safety. The lower number of encounters, DHS said, means fewer agents have to be assigned to processing of migrants. Agents have for years complained those duties have restricted them from carrying out their preferred law enforcement responsibilities. 

The department boasted of additional resources it has allocated toward the administration’s border crackdown, such as deploying more than 100 international repatriation flights to send undocumented migrants back to their countries of origin. It has ramped up expedited removals and slashed the number of migrants released pending removal proceedings, which it said would reduce the strain on the heavily backlogged immigration court system.

DHS is accepting 1,450 appointments per day through its CBP One mobile app, which allows individuals in Mexico to apply for legal status in the United States. That number has remained flat even as the Biden administration has begun overwhelmingly turning away asylum seekers at the border. 

Mayorkas derided Congress for failing to take action on immigration policy and enforcement personnel even after the Senate struck a bipartisan deal after months of negotiations. While the administration’s executive actions are tentatively proving successful in reducing encounters at the border, the secretary said last progress cannot be made without legislative intervention. 

“We need timely funds to hire more agents, officers and support personnel,” Mayorkas said, as well as to “hire more judges to move cases faster.” 

The bipartisan Senate bill, which the Senate has already rejected twice this year, would have supported more than 4,300 asylum officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection personnel—including both Border Patrol agents and customs officers—1,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, 100 immigration judges and support staff and additional USCIS staff.