We Have a Border Security Crisis
Friends,
This week, five of my female Senate colleagues and I visited the Del Rio Sector of the Texas border, an area that boasts the second-highest number of illegal crossings in the United States. There isn’t just a crisis going on at the border between Mexico and Texas, but a humanitarian tragedy of epic proportions that is exacerbated by the fact that it is costing our state millions of dollars.
As a mother and a grandmother, I think the most devastating costs of this immigration crisis are those to human dignity and human life. Believe it or not, the cartels are literally advertising on television, coercing individuals to hand over thousands of dollars - sometimes every cent they have – in exchange for a trip to America. Border Patrol in the Del Rio sector estimates that the average “fee” for transporting an “other than Mexican national” unaccompanied minor child at $7309.
In federal Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) in the Del Rio sector alone, there were 18,922 total apprehensions of individuals crossing illegally at the border. Year to date in FY21, there have been 60,544 apprehensions. (The federal fiscal year begins in October of each year and runs through September.) This is a three-fold increase, and we are only halfway through the year!
According to the Border Patrol and Texas Department of Patrol Safety briefing provided to our delegation, a single reason accounts for the bulk of the dramatic increase in unaccompanied minors and others entering illegally at the border: the lifting of the “Remain in Mexico” policy. The “Remain in Mexico” policy required individuals wishing to enter the US to remain in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in the US immigration courts.
The Biden Administration's decision to dismiss the “Remain in Mexico” policy provided an immediate, lucrative, and irresistible motive for the Mexican cartels to exploit and extort desperate families hoping to come to the United States through Texas and start a new life. Understand, the cartels are not concerned about the conditions experienced by children on the border caused by the overcrowding they facilitate. On the contrary, these very conditions create even more opportunity for trafficking of humans and drugs as border patrol agents are pulled away from their primary duty of border patrol to that of processing the endlessly increasing numbers of individuals crossing the border.
Policy has consequences. What is happening at the border is indeed more than a crisis, it strikes at the heart of what America stands for: the dignity of human life and the right of all people to live in freedom.
Upon our return to the capitol Monday afternoon, our Senate delegation hosted a press conference to share what we found and implore our federal leaders to make changes to address the conditions on the border. To watch, please click here.
Senator Angela Paxton
Texas Senate District 8
