As Border Surge Continues, Biden Resurrects Trump-Era Rule He Previously Denounced

On Tuesday, President Biden stated that the U.S. southern border was “going to be chaotic for a while” days before Title 42 was set to expire on May 11. But in a surprise move, the Biden administration resurrected a Trump-era immigration regulation on Wednesday that tightens restrictions on migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. The measure comes amid law enforcement officials along the border reporting being overwhelmed by the surge of humanity.

As reported by The Daily Wire, a new rule published in the Federal Register on Wednesday states that migrants who apply for asylum in the U.S. must first apply for asylum in the countries that they traveled through to get to the border. Biden previously criticized former President Trump for implementing the rule during a 2020 presidential debate, alleging that the Trump rule forced migrants “to sit in squalor.”

Meanwhile, local law enforcement officials on the southern border continue to struggle with a seemingly unending flow of migrants with insufficient manpower. Mark Dannels, sheriff of the border county of Cochise in Arizona, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” to describe the current conditions on the ground.

“We were one of the safest borders in Cochise County [with] all the proactive things we’ve done — the measures [and] the programs,” he explained. “As we sit here … three years later, [we now] lead the nation in ‘gotaways’ — people that don’t want to be caught. Sixteen to 20,000 a month come through the Tucson sector, which includes my county. … When you say the surge is here, it’s definitely here. We’re releasing 400 a day in my community. That’s a huge impact. … So it’s a challenge right now on the backs of all these rural communities.”

Dannels went on to detail how the border crisis is swallowing up resources that are meant to be used for enforcing local laws for the residents in the rest of the county.

“It’s a real challenge,” he acknowledged. “I was out on a call Sunday with my guys for a couple hours. … We were on a suicide in progress, and agencies are calling for backup because they’re in a pursuit with a smuggler. They bail out. They’re running through the neighborhoods. So 40 to 45% of all the people in my jail right now are [there for] border-related crimes. That was 1,600 people almost last year … for border-related crimes. … So it’s a huge pressure tank, and … besides Border Patrol, I have zero financial support from the federal government.”

Dannels further noted that under the previous administration, border-related criminal bookings were around five to 10%, which means that border-related crimes rose roughly 700% under the Biden administration.

As the end of Title 42 looms on Thursday, the sheriff explained that the Border Patrol’s resources are already stretched far beyond capacity. “[T]he infrastructure of capacity is so fractured right now for CBP [Border Patrol]. It was 3,500. They’re expecting 11,000 [starting] Thursday per day. [They] can’t handle it. That forces an automatic catch and release. And that’s the worst place you want to be when you’re trying to secure a country.”