Border Patrol says morale is 'in the toilet' with just 12 guards protecting a 245-mile stretch of border in the Rio Grande during a historic influx in migrants
A dozen Border Patrol officers are reportedly responsible for patrolling a nearly 250-mile stretch of the southern border - hitting a new low for both staffing and morale as the number of migrants crossing into the United States shatters records month-to-month.
Customs and Border Protection has a force of roughly 19,000 officers.
Roughly half the agents stationed in Texas have been pulled from patrolling the border and instead tasked with processing migrants in custody.
Texas and New Mexico account for 60 percent of known border crossings.
'Morale is in the toilet,' National Border Patrol Council Vice President Jon Anfinsen told the Washington Examiner.
He said morale among CBP officers is low because they 'aren't allowed to do their job.'
'If our job is to be out patrolling the border in between the ports of entry and actively searching for people who have crossed illegally, but we're not allowed to go do that job, it basically creates this defeated feeling in everyone,' he told the outlet.
Border crossings hit a 21-year high in July when 212,672 migrant encounters were reported.
'Like with migrant surges in the past, U.S. Border Patrol is fortunate to have dedicated law enforcement professionals who remain resilient as we seek to improve enforcement efforts along the border. Day in and day out, our Border Patrol agents continue to meet the need to protect our nation’s border as well as process migrants safely and expeditiously,' a Border Patrol spokesperson told DailMail.com in a statement.
Crossings at the southern border have been rising significantly since Biden took office, hitting a 21-year high of 212,672 in July
Anfinsen said officers now are almost solely dealing with people who 'are walking up to us and turning themselves in.'
'Meanwhile, the immigrants who don't want anything to do with us, they're running away.'
That means there are potentially thousands more migrants crossing undetected.
The number of border crossings in July is a 13 percent increase from June. There have been nearly a million reported border encounters between February and July under Biden's watch.
One former CBP official described agents getting burned out by the influx of migrants and their relatively little power to stop them - and added that long processing times for migrants are a clear indication of their fatigue.
'Agents are just flat tired, and we are seeing and hearing it,' they wrote in an email to the Examiner.
Border Patrol agents are burned out and 'morale is in the toilet' as some reportedly feel helpless to stop the surge of migrants
Many officers report being sidelined to tasks like processing and transporting migrants rather than active duty patrols
A current federal agent said it was 'easy' to spot groups of people crossing the Rio Grande River but that no agents are available to stop them or record their passage.
Instead, many are relegated to nonenforcement tasks like processing and transporting migrants.
'They know that people are getting away every single day, every hour,' Anfinsen said.
Another anonymous former official speaking with the Examiner accused the Biden administration of turning border patrol officers into corrections officers.
The ex-agent described agents being forced into crowded detention facilities to manage migrants instead of being out in the field, dubbing it a 'medical emergency.'
More than 10,000 CBP employees have tested positive for COVID since the pandemic began.
Immigrants pray while waiting to be processed by US Border Patrol agents after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico
Asylum-seeking migrant families arrive to the US side of the bank in Roma, Texas on an inflatable raft after crossing the Rio Grande
Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the border crisis in leaked audio:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 13, 2021
¿This is unsustainable. These numbers cannot continue.¿ pic.twitter.com/60sQDuApWl
Biden DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on the border crisis in leaked audio:
¿This is unsustainable. These numbers cannot continue.¿ pic.twitter.com/60sQDuApWl
An agent in Arizona, where crossings are slightly lighter than in Texas, said their mission has gone from detection and deterrence to 'wait until they have all crossed, Uber them to the station and process.'
The Biden administration has taken a more lenient approach to border enforcement than under former President Trump. Besides halting construction of the border wall, Biden also stopped Trump's remain-in-Mexico policy and oriented the Homeland Security Department to focus less on deterrence and punishment and more on orderly processing of immigrants.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted there is a crisis at the border and that policies need to change in leaked audio from a private meeting with Texas border agents.
'If our borders are the first line of defense, we're going to lose, and this is unsustainable,' he said in audio obtained by Fox News.
'We can't continue like this, our people in the field can't continue and our system isn't built for it.'
He told the border agents at the leaked meeting 'these numbers cannot continue.'
'We cannot get to a point where we were a couple of weeks ago, and we're gonna make sure that doesn't happen,' the DHS head continued, apparently referencing July's historic numbers.