Border Patrol Chief: Border Surge Partially Driven by Perception of ‘Easier Time of Coming Across’ and Possibility of Work

During an interview with CBS News that took place on March 21 and was released in its entirety on Monday, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens stated that one reason for the record number of apprehensions at the border is “You see people that perceive an easier time of coming across that, by social media, by word of mouth, that’s going to entice them to come across and take advantage of the volume that we’re seeing to be able to get into the country and await their asylum claim and maybe work while they’re waiting.” And that instead of people coming to the U.S. to work temporarily “what we’re seeing is everybody’s picking up lock, stock, and barrel with their entire families and making this journey.”

CBS News Immigration and Politics Reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez asked, “[T]he number of apprehensions recorded by Border Patrol has never been this high. Why is that happening?”

Owens answered, “Well, I think you have a lot of folks that — we always have, folks that want to come to this country to make a better way of life for themselves, and that’s something that, it’s important to our country, it’s important in our history. You see people that perceive an easier time of coming across that, by social media, by word of mouth, that’s going to entice them to come across and take advantage of the volume that we’re seeing to be able to get into the country and await their asylum claim and maybe work while they’re waiting. I also think that the cartels and the smugglers are encouraging them more and more. Why? Because they’re making millions and millions of dollars every week, not just on narcotics smuggling, but now, in the human trafficking and human smuggling arenas. … In times past, what we would we see, a lot of times, are folks from Mexico, economic migration, coming across, they would work for the season, they would send remittances home to their families, and then, at the end of the season, they’d return home, and then they would come back again. Now, what we’re seeing is everybody’s picking up lock, stock, and barrel with their entire families and making this journey.”

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