UNITED STATES - Law Enforcement Today previously reported on the internal safety alert that went out to all U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, urging them to be extra vigilant after 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found at the southern border during a drug cartel gunfight as well as the notice that went out from CBP about suspending railroads at Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, due to the resurgence in human smuggling via freight trains.
Now, according to FOX News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are sending additional personnel to help CBP deal with the massive migrant surge plaguing the southern border and leaving authorities overwhelmed.
An ICE official told Fox News Digital that they are sending dozens of personnel to the border to aid CBP agents. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the unit tasked with the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants, will be providing 141 personnel to assist CBP with border operations.
Some of the duties they will be assisting with include responding to questions regarding medical and transport issues, enrolling illegal immigrants into alternatives to detention (ATD), electronic monitoring, and coordinating removals and the necessary travel documents.
These personnel will join the 132 ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents that are currently at the southern border. According to the department, the number of HSI agents will increase to 197. A memo of understanding (MOU) indicates that the special agents will be assigned to duties that include hospital watch, transportation, law enforcement searches, security, and welfare checks.
ICE, the department responsible for enforcing federal immigration law in the interior and investigating and dismantling transnational criminal networks, is a smaller agency than CBP. So, moving significant numbers of personnel to the border can potentially impact their own ongoing operations. In the past, HSI agents have complained that deployments have impacted their ongoing investigations.
Back in August 2023, one agent told Fox News Digital, "We're already understaffed as an agency and pulling us down to the border, it makes us almost a critical level of understaffed."
However, this deployment comes during a historic migrant crisis at the southern border. CBP is overwhelmed and the other agencies pitching in to help is significant. Transportation resources from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have also been sent to the border to assist.
On Thursday, December 21st, FOX News reported that there were 200,000 migrant encounters at the border in the month of December, which is not over yet. Agents are reportedly seeing more than 10,000 migrant crossings a day, which indicates that the month of December is on track to shatters previous records.
In October 2023, the Biden administration requested $14 billion as part of its supplemental funding request, which included money for CBP agents, processing coordinators and other support staff. However, that request is being held up in Washington, D.C. as lawmakers look to work on a deal after Republicans demanded greater limits on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole to release migrants into the interior.
Now, according to FOX News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are sending additional personnel to help CBP deal with the massive migrant surge plaguing the southern border and leaving authorities overwhelmed.
An ICE official told Fox News Digital that they are sending dozens of personnel to the border to aid CBP agents. Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), the unit tasked with the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants, will be providing 141 personnel to assist CBP with border operations.
Some of the duties they will be assisting with include responding to questions regarding medical and transport issues, enrolling illegal immigrants into alternatives to detention (ATD), electronic monitoring, and coordinating removals and the necessary travel documents.
These personnel will join the 132 ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents that are currently at the southern border. According to the department, the number of HSI agents will increase to 197. A memo of understanding (MOU) indicates that the special agents will be assigned to duties that include hospital watch, transportation, law enforcement searches, security, and welfare checks.
ICE, the department responsible for enforcing federal immigration law in the interior and investigating and dismantling transnational criminal networks, is a smaller agency than CBP. So, moving significant numbers of personnel to the border can potentially impact their own ongoing operations. In the past, HSI agents have complained that deployments have impacted their ongoing investigations.
Back in August 2023, one agent told Fox News Digital, "We're already understaffed as an agency and pulling us down to the border, it makes us almost a critical level of understaffed."
However, this deployment comes during a historic migrant crisis at the southern border. CBP is overwhelmed and the other agencies pitching in to help is significant. Transportation resources from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) have also been sent to the border to assist.
On Thursday, December 21st, FOX News reported that there were 200,000 migrant encounters at the border in the month of December, which is not over yet. Agents are reportedly seeing more than 10,000 migrant crossings a day, which indicates that the month of December is on track to shatters previous records.
In October 2023, the Biden administration requested $14 billion as part of its supplemental funding request, which included money for CBP agents, processing coordinators and other support staff. However, that request is being held up in Washington, D.C. as lawmakers look to work on a deal after Republicans demanded greater limits on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole to release migrants into the interior.
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Comments
2023-12-25T22:00-0500 | Comment by: Russell
Same old BS. Not a single word about stemming the flow across our border. Not one! This effort is not designed to help the problem, it's designed to make it worse. At least Trump was trying....