Homeland Security chief: Migrant encounters down 40% since Biden order

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Wednesday a decrease in migrants entering the U.S. illegally through the southern border since President Joe Biden's order to temporarily restrict migrants seeking entry.

Speaking in Tucson, Mayorkas said the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona from New Mexico to the Yuma County line, has seen a 45% decrease in U.S. Border Patrol encounters since Biden's rule was implemented. The Tucson Sector has been the busiest sector along the border this year.

Across the entire southern border, Border Patrol encounters have fallen by more than 40% while immigration proceedings have increased by 80% "in our backlogged court system," he said.

"We are imposing stricter consequences for those who cross the border without authorization," Mayorkas said Wednesday at a news conference at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.

Tucson was just one stop in an operational visit from federal officials in southern Arizona where they visited Nogales Border Patrol Station's area of responsibility, the DeConcini port of entry in downtown Nogales, and spoke with sector chiefs. They also toured the soft-sided processing center in Tucson, which houses up to 1,000 people.

Biden’s new rule allows the Border Patrol to shut down all asylum processing under sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act when the number of migrant crossings between the ports of entry exceeds 2,500 per day over a seven-day period.

In the last three weeks, the Border Patrol has made more than 100 international repatriation flights to more than 20 countries and removed more than 24,000 people, Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas reiterated that Biden's order is not a replacement for congressional action. He pointed to the Senate's bipartisan border agreement that would have added 1,500 Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, and 1,200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, among other resources. It was rejected by Republican members of Congress.

Biden's recent rule restricting immigration allows people facing persecution or who show an intention to apply for asylum to take a credible fear test. However, migrants say they are being removed without being offered the test. In the three weeks after the order was implemented, the Kino Border Initiative, a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, saw 78 people deported without being referred to an interview with an asylum officer, 16% of them children ages 5 and under.

Official policy differs from what migrants and advocates are seeing on the ground

In response to criticism that migrants are being removed without their asylum requests being heard, Mayorkas said agents are following official guidelines.

“Our agents and officers … are well-trained in identifying individuals who manifest fear, whether they vocalize that manifestation or whether there are signs physically of fear. They are well-trained and expert. They follow the guidelines that we have provided to them,” he said.

Migrants also are being forced to leave behind their belongings, items that are never returned to them. Advocates have found passports, birth certificates, Bibles, pictures and even a family member’s ashes abandoned on the ground.

Mayorkas said that while official procedure requires the items to be taken, they are supposed to be returned.

"We do take individual's belongings for the safety and security of the personnel in our custody and the safety and security of the agents,” he said. “We return the individual's belongings when they are removed or when they are moved to a different facility. That is our standard operating procedure."

Migrants and advocates at the Kino Border Initiative say they have seen people being deported without the option to sign a voluntary return. With deportation, people are barred from entering the United States for five years. If migrants agree to a voluntary return, Mayorkas said, they are eligible to obtain an immigration appointment through the CBP One App, the main way for migrants to request entry into the U.S.

Migrants trying to make appointments through the app often have to wait months if they are even able to get one.

Mayorkas said there are no plans to increase the number of available appointments because the limit of 1,400 to 1,500 appointments per day is based on the capacity of the ports of entry.

“They are antiquated ports of entry that are also in need of funding to modernize them,” he said.

Biden's order restricting access to asylum was followed last week with an executive action that will allow nearly 550,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the country for more than 10 years to apply for a green card.

Reach the reporter at sarah.lapidus@gannett.com. The Republic’s coverage of southern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. Support Arizona news coverage with a tax-deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alejandro Mayorkas in Tucson: Migrant encounters down since Biden rule