Bitchin' about Borders

One week ago today, in the early morning sub-tropical dark of the Texas Rio Grande Valley, 130 Venezuelan immigrants climbed aboard a 737 jet to be returned to their home country. They wore restraints on their wrists and ankles and were patted down by federal agents prior to climbing the stairs to the aircraft. The flight was a resumption of deportations to that country from the U.S., a process which had not occurred in many years but was a new part of the Biden administration’s increasing efforts to manage the influx of migrants from Venezuela.

The flight that took off from Harlingen International Airport signified an attempt by the Biden White House to manage deportations to countries with which the U.S. has strained diplomatic relations. Venezuela’s government is considered more authoritarian than democratic and its economy has suffered with oil prices fluctuating on global markets and sanctions from consumers like the U.S. The average per capita income there is $3.70, which is not sufficient to buy a gallon of water. Venezuela’s government has intimated adjustments to political processes are coming in exchange for freer markets for its energy products.

The deportations are a part of an increasingly stringent approach to immigration by President Biden. Numerous flights will be sent from various U.S. airports to Venezuela in the coming months even as the Biden administration has granted temporary protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of immigrants from there who entered the U.S. prior to July. Washington is urging prospective migrants to use the application portal instead of making unauthorized trips. The number of people approaching the U.S., particularly in Texas, has reached unprecedented numbers. A Customs and Border Patrol agency record of 2.48 million people were encountered by officers in the fiscal year that ended in September, which is 100,000 above 2022. The most ever reported in a single month was 269,735 migrants along the Southwest border in September, a number that was up 50% from July.

While the president continues to take political grief from complainers like the governor of Texas, who frequently refers to the “Biden Border Crisis,” Biden continues to push for more funding for border security. In fact, he recently asked the dysfunctional and speaker-less U.S. House to approve $13.6 billion dollars to manage problems along the border. The figure includes funds for an increase in deportation flights to repatriate immigrants without legal claim to be in the U.S., but the White House also wants money to add 1300 more Border Patrol agents to the current total of 20,205. The request of Congress also includes resources for another 1000 Customs and Border Protection officers.

While the Trump-led House of Representatives is unable to organize enough to elect a speaker, the president’s supplemental request for 2024 border funding would have a significant impact on the immigration crisis. Unfortunately, the money has to be approved by the majority Republican house, an impossibility as long as there is no leadership. The border crisis, constantly complained about by the GOP, is going unaddressed by the GOP. They have only whined over the course of several years and have offered no legislation or even constructs to begin a solution. The Texas governor has never publicly asked his state’s congressional delegation to work on laws for national consideration to fix what is not working; he has only spent billions in Texas tax dollars to send troops and officers and razor wire and floating barriers to militarize the border. Solving the problem with legislation would leave him nothing to use to advance his political stature with Trump’s radical base of voters. He tweets multiple times a week about Texas building its own border wall but the project is only about two miles long, and projected at seven with current monies, which leaves a rather large gap in the 1254 mile border.

The president, meanwhile, is doing his job by laying out planned expenditures that will add significant assets to border ports of entry to include Non-Intrusive Inspection systems to enhance fentanyl detection and other contraband, and hire considerably more personnel to begin right-sizing a system not built to manage the present level of encounters being experienced on the Mexican frontier. The White House request also includes:

• 1,470 additional attorneys and support staff to match the 375 new immigration judge teams to adjudicate and process immigration cases more quickly and help reduce the caseload backlog.
   

• Ongoing funding for Department of Defense support provided along the southwest border in FY 2024.
   

• Resources for third countries to conduct their own repatriation flights and help reduce the flow of migrants to the United States. The White House is also seeking authority to provide assistance to foreign countries to conduct repatriations if the Secretaries of Homeland Security and State determine that support is in the national interest.

• $1.4 billion in grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations for temporary food, shelter, and other services for recently arrived migrants.

• An additional 1,600 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers to help hear asylum claims and expedite removals from the United States. And 30 new USCIS officers to process work-authorization requests from migrants.

• An additional 300 Border Patrol processing coordinators to work alongside Border Patrol agents assisting with the intake of undocumented migrants.

• Additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities to hold asylum-seekers.

• Providing non-custodial housing options for asylum-seekers, like community-based residential housing facilities with medical and legal facilities.

• An additional 1,470 lawyers and support staff to assist 375 new immigration judge teams to process immigration cases. There are currently 2.6 million backlogged immigration cases, the highest figure ever recorded by ICE.

These measures appear to have the force of law and logistical potential to add meaningful controls to an historic flow of humanity toward the U.S. If Trump supporters and the GOP members in Congress were truly concerned about solving a problem, they would elect a speaker and pass the funding supplement. There is, however, little evidence they want to fix the border problem.

They just want to bitch about it for political points.