How to manufacture a border crisis

When you read about the border crisis, small words make a big difference. You’ve likely heard about the surge in migrant “encounters” at the border. And there are a lot of these—more than 2.1 million in fiscal year 2023[1] —so it’s a handy way for the agency to request a bigger enforcement budget. 

But here’s the thing: an “encounter” is any person who is questioned by agents, or anyone whose documentation is run through the system. It’s not anywhere close to the number of people they actually “apprehend” or arrest. According to an analysis of Border Patrol data by Syracuse University, the average Border Patrol agent now apprehends a whopping six to seven people per month.

These are individuals who agents suspect have a criminal record, are smuggling drugs into the country, are terror suspects or are trying to sneak by instead of presenting themselves for an official asylum request. These people do exist, but it’s not an everyday occurrence for the vast majority of agents.  

So why does Border Patrol use “encounter”? Because they want the public to believe the border is being overrun with criminals instead of regular people seeking asylum or economic opportunity. In fact, the number of apprehensions has declined dramatically over time—a reduction of 83 percent from the mid 1990’s, when I was a Border Patrol agent, to just 21 apprehensions per agent last year. 

The real “crisis” at the Southern border is the lack of resources to help migrants legally request asylum. Migrants and asylum seekers struggle to turn themselves in, and the U.S. government struggles to process them in a timely fashion. The CBP One app needs to be overhauled, and the immigration court backlog now spans years. That’s where the money should go.

But Border Patrol has been largely successful in shaping the narrative. To watch the mainstream media coverage—both right wing and left wing– you’d think that the nation is under attack and being “invaded.” Nothing could be further from the truth.  

Take the so-called “migrant caravans.” This spring, an immigration attorney named Andrew Free published information about CBP, which he obtained through Freedom of Information Act request. The data shows that the government knowingly mislead the public. In the summer of 2019, they publicly claimed not to know who was among a caravan traveling north through Mexico, insinuating that it was a massive security threat.  

In fact, they knew intimate details about almost every caravan member: their sex, medical status, nationality, and whether they had criminal records in their country of origin. That’s because Mexican officials had already processed these migrants. They were sharing this intel with CBP and Border Patrol on an ongoing basis. 

Or take an event in El Paso from earlier this spring. The media ran footage of migrants rushing past national guard soldiers—a scene that looked like total chaos. Here’s what really happened: As migrants approached Border Patrol to voluntarily turn themselves in for legal processing—which is what they are supposed to do– the Texas National Guard soldiers opened fire, shooting at them with rubber bullets. These people were merely walking toward border officials, until government prompted panic with a preemptive use of violence.  

It’s also worth noting that Trump gave the Border Patrol union a generous contract before leaving the White House. More agents were taken from the border and placed in full-time union positions. These union stewards are permitted to talk with the media and “engage in partisan political activity.” 

That translates into Border Patrol agents allocating more time to escorting right-wing websites and social media reporters around the border, showing them large groups of migrants rounded up for processing or herded into illegal makeshift outdoor camps. Without context, these scenes make the situation at the border look urgent. 

The urgency is not the need to protect Americans from migrants.

It’s the need to improve how we process these folks in our immigration courts, and to finally come up with a substantial overhaul of the entire dysfunctional immigration system. 

In the meantime, politicians — with the help of Border Patrol — continue to scare voters into supporting them. 

Jenn Budd is an analyst, activist and former Senior Border Patrol Agent in San Diego, California. She is the author of the memoir “Against the Wall.”