For years, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol have said their facilities are overwhelmed and the system is severely broken. Politicians in Washington, D.C. have debated the issue, but one thing they can't debate is the cold hard facts. And the fact is we have people from around the world taking advantage of loopholes in our immigration system, a Border Patrol whistleblower told Townhall.
Central American caravan riders have overwhelmed the Border Patrol since last fall when they began coming to the United States en masse. Mexico established a system to help the U.S. deal with the people who were coming to America, allegedly seeking asylum. Those who wanted to seek asylum had to go through a port of entry, file the paperwork and then go back to Mexico to wait until their court date. Mexico even offered to provide humanitarian visas to those who couldn't legally enter into the United States so they could stay in Mexico and work. But that's not what these migrants wanted. They want a life in America.
People from other countries – especially those labeled "exotics" by Border Patrol – have figured out a way to skirt the new system: cross the border, find an agent and say, "I want to see an immigration judge." Border Patrol processes them and out the door they go, released into America. Of course, they're given a court date but the immigration court is so backlogged that their date isn't for two to three years down the road and the reality is, once they're released, they don't show up for their court hearing. What incentive do they have?
Things continue to heat up along the Southern border. Democrats have said we don't have a crisis at the border, but statistics and figures say otherwise. U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Acting Commissioner John P. Sanders said last week that Border Patrol is having to transport "hundreds of families by bus and aircraft from the U.S. Border Patrol’s severely overcrowded processing facilities to less-crowded stations along the Southwest border."
Smaller stations, primarily quick processing centers designed to target drug traffickers and cartels, have had to take on this additional responsibility. Illegal aliens were flown from Texas to San Diego and bused to various facilities in the San Diego sector, despite the sector designed for short-term holding (24 hours).
Despite being designed for short-term holding, illegal aliens are being held for long periods of time, documents provided to Townhall reveal. As of May 19th, the Brown Field station had 100 detainees who had been held for seven days and another 91 who had been held for six days. The Murrieta station had 16 detainees who had been held for eight days and Imperial Beach had seven that had been held for 30 days. The Chula Vista station had 223 people in custody in 10 cells, five of which exceeded maximum capacity, documents provided to Townhall show. And all of these facilities are designed to hold people for a maximum time period of 24 hours.
The reason this is a big deal: these short-term facilities lack basic necessities and amenities. The Murrieta station, for example, can hold a maximum of 25 people. There are no beds, no showers, one or two toilets and simple metal benches. They are literal jail cells that people are being shoved into like cattle. And when this happens, it's not only inhumane but it's also unfair to Border Patrol agents. Despite being "pre-screened" for health conditions, guess what's happening? Communicable diseases are popping up. San Diego recently had a flu epidemic that was directly traced back to the aliens who were flown from Texas for processing. Agents are doing what they can to identify health issues but they're not doctors. They're not trained to spot measles, TB, the flu and other diseases, the whistleblower revealed.
And here's where things get even more twisted. If an illegal alien comes up sick, agents are forced to take him or her to a nearby urgent care or hospital for treatment, exposing everyone in the community to the communicable disease. Border Patrol and ICE aren't required to report said diseases to the Center for Disease Control so there's absolutely no way for the CDC to accurately track where an outbreak began, the whistleblower explained. Not only that, but agents are getting sick themselves and they're bringing these diseases home. They're exposing their kids and family members to the diseases they're being exposed to while on the job.
The whistleblower who spoke to me explained the general concern amongst agents tends to be the same: agents really aren't on the border right now because they're spending basically all of their time and resources processing people who ask to see immigration judges. The illegal aliens figured out our "catch and release" system so they're coming in droves. Not having anyone along the border means we essentially have open borders. The drug cartels and terrorists are taking advantage of that fact. Agents are seeing more "exotics" – people from South Africa, Somalia, India and the Middle East – than they otherwise would have. It's not just those from Central America, like Guatemala and Honduras.
Between May 12 and May 18th, the Chula Vista station alone had people from the following countries, according to documents viewed by Townhall:
• Honduras - 69
• Guatemala – 51
• India - 43
• El Salvador - 23
• Nepal - 3
• Ecuador - 3
• Brazil - 2
• Senegal - 2
These aren't people coming to the port of entry and asking for asylum either. They're illegally crossing, waiting to be apprehended and told they want to see an immigration judge. They get processed and then are being released back into the community.
In Southern California, the Department of Homeland Security is dumping these illegals at various locations, from bus stops to malls. They essentially throw them in our communities and say "see you later," even though it's really "we'll never see you again."
The only time an illegal is kept in custody is if he or she has been convicted of a crime in America. Theoretically, someone could have committed murder in Honduras, but unless that conviction was reported to the international database, there's no way for agents to know that the person has a criminal background. We're literally letting anyone and everyone into our country, the whistleblower said.
President Trump is correct: there is a crisis at our border. Sadly though, his hands are tied until Congress decides to take action. The first step is to close our border and build the wall. The second step is to remove the requirement that every person sees an immigration judge. These illegal aliens are using our system against us. They don't have a Constitutional right to due process because they're not American citizens. It's time to close the border and the loopholes.
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