Hearing Describes Border Chaos, but No Sign that Congress Can Fix It
By Jerry Kammer on April 10, 2019
A senior Border Patrol agent told a Senate hearing yesterday of dire conditions along the Texas border. But the conflicting concerns expressed by Democratic and Republican senators provided no reason for optimism that Congress will agree on legislation to address the surging influx of Central American asylum seekers drawn northward by the near certainty that they will be released into the United States to await court hearings that could be years away.
"In my 30 years as an agent, I have never witnessed the conditions we are currently facing on the Southwest border," said Rodolfo Karisch, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, which is responsible for 320 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico. Karisch and others at the hearing said smugglers are marketing their services across Central America, spreading word of a virtually open border for those who come north with a child and ask for asylum.
https://cis.org/Kammer/Hearing-Describes-Border-Chaos-No-Sign-Congress-Can-Fix-It