The chief of the Border Patrol told members of Congress behind closed doors that the recent drop in illegal immigrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border since Title 42 ended would be short-lived, according to a GOP lawmaker.
Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) disclosed during a House committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that Chief Raul Ortiz had confessed in a briefing weeks earlier that the sharp decline in border apprehensions that illegal crossings would soon return to the historically high levels seen since President Joe Biden took office.
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“Roughly two weeks ago, Chief Ortiz was here on Capitol Hill briefing members of Congress, particularly members of this committee, about events that have transpired post-Title 42,” Guest said during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Title 42 Tuesday afternoon. “Ortiz said that he believed that the reduction that we’ve seen post-Title 42 — he described it as what he believed to be a temporary reduction and that he expected the numbers to return at some point back to the baseline that we had seen over the last two years.”
Guest’s comment came hours after the Department of Homeland Security announced illegal immigration arrests at the border had dropped more than 70% from before May 11, the end date of Title 42, and early June.
Put on the spot by Guest, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy Blas Nunez-Neto testified Tuesday that the Biden administration was “encouraged” by the drop in illegal entries recently but “clear-eyed” that the reasons people were migrating across the Western Hemisphere had not changed.
“This is a fragile equilibrium that we have on the border, and it could be upset in the future for sure,” Nunez-Neto said.
A senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official agreed with Ortiz.
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“There [are] still [immigrants] there in Mexico. I believe they’ve taken kind of a wait-and-see approach to see how this pans out,” said Benjamine “Carry” Huffman, CBP’s acting deputy commissioner.
Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) added that he did not believe “this chapter” on the border was over.
