For the first 5 years after Porvaznik joined in 1988 there were only around 4,000 Border Patrol agents.

Crossing the border back then was so easy that smuggling organizations basically didn't exist and millions of people crossed back and forth annually with few consequences.
Porvaznik's comments are also especially odd because for the first 18 years of his time as a Border Patrol agent, releasing migrants was a common practice.

Here's George Bush in *2006* calling for the end of "catch and release." georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/…

Image
The reality is that there have been only a handful of years in the last 50 years in which at least 10% or more people crossing the border *haven't* been released—basically about 10 years out of the last 15, all of which coincide with periods of low migration of non-Mexicans.
The logistical issues which Bush referenced in his 2006 speech (e.g. lack of detention space) remained true in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2021.

Even if a President wants to "deport them all," it's logistically (and often legally) impossible in times of high migration.
This is why I always talk about rethinking border processing.

If George Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all tried and failed to "end catch and release" for anything more than a year or three, then why do people keep insisting it's possible?

We need a new path.

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More from @ReichlinMelnick

Feb 9
A twist! Texas et al.'s lawsuit was randomly assigned to Chief Judge Barbara Lynn, one of just two judges on NDTX appointed by a Dem.

Texas then belatedly claimed the case was "related" to the MPP case in an attempt to get reassigned to Kascmaryk—very likely a losing argument. Image
DOJ filed a brief calling Texas's request to transfer the CAM case to Kascmaryk by "relating" it to the MPP case an "obvious attempt at circumventing the random case assignment rules."

Before Texas even responded, Judge Lynn said she'd issue a decision.
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Having the case assigned to Judge Lynn means Texas is far less likely to succeed in blocking the CAM program, a good result given that the program has now operated under three different administrations and helps protect children from the dangerous journey to the US.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 9
FFS, emergency rooms were in danger of collapse just a couple weeks ago! This infographic is from an article updated TWO DAYS AGO. nbcnews.com/health/health-…

I swear to god the last year has broken peoples' brains. Image
I think the emphasis on guilt here is so telling. It *sucks* having to think about COVID all the time. But when we see friends, we test before we go (thank god DC makes rapid antigen tests free), and that's so we DON'T feel guilty if someone gets COVID!
Sorry I'm still on this, I'm just thinking about how the US suffered over a million deaths due to COVID (when looking at excess mortality) in two years, and millions more still suffer from Long COVID, and people can still be like "just get over it, bro!"

Read 4 tweets
Feb 8
Want to know how incredibly false @GeneralBrnovich "legal opinion" is? Here's Border Patrol apprehensions in Arizona since 1999.

30% of those crossing in Arizona recently were Venezuelan, Cuban, or Nicaraguan asylum seekers. Brnovich's "invasion" rhetoric is dangerous and vile. Image
Wow. @GeneralBrnovich's "legal opinion" here is madness. He declares that a state can be legally "invaded" by non-state actors so as to justify the use of state WAR powers.

This is dangerous stuff, folks. scribd.com/document/55748… Image
Brnovich has a whole "factual" section on "violence at the border" that he cites to claim that Arizona is being invaded.

Literally the only things he could find as support were a 2019 shooting *in Mexico* and a 2013 attempted murder that occurred 20+ miles north of the border. Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 8
Big news: Trump's asylum work permit rules are dead!

In @AsylumWorksDC's lawsuit, Judge Beryl Howell is now the 6th judge to rule that, due to a paperwork error, Chad Wolf was invalidly appointed Acting DHS Sectary—so both asylum EAD regulations are void. storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2022/02/07… Excerpt from conclusion of ...
Judge Howell agreed with every other federal judge to review the issue that Wolf (and Kevin McAleenan before him) were not validly appointed as DHS heads due to Nielsen messing up.

She is, however, the first judge to rule @SecMayorkas's attempt to shore up this rule didn't work. Finding no reason to depart...
Why were Kevin McAleenan and Chad Wolf unlawfully appointed? Long story short, the memo that Kirstjen Nielsen signed before stepping down in 2019 didn't do what she thought it did; a massive "oops" that DHS has tried (and failed) to wriggle its way out of.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 7
Hernandez was a huge favorite of the previous administration, because he agreed to go along with their anti-immigrant actions.

At the same time as SDNY was accusing him of being an unindicted coconspirator in narcotrafficking and murder, the Trump White House welcomed him. Image
My favorite claim made by federal prosecutors against President Hernandez is that he bragged about "shov[ing] the drugs right up the noses of the gringos."

Yet despite his corruption being an open secret, he was a key Trump ally in the region. nytimes.com/2021/03/09/wor…
In 2020, after federal prosecutors had arrested Hernandez's brother and head of security for narcotrafficking, Chad Wolf visited Honduras to thank him for "implementing our asylum agreement."

Trump's DHS praised him while DOJ called him a coconspirator.
hn.usembassy.gov/acting-dhs-sec… Image
Read 4 tweets
Feb 7
The thing that struck me most about this piece is the extent to which Border Patrol agents don't actually understand the border policies in place.

For example, MORE people were released at the border under Trump from 2018-2019, but I guarantee you this guy doesn't know that.
Case in point: this guy claims a solution to releasing people at the border would be sending more asylum officers down to do processing.

But that isn't what asylum officers DO. It's literally not their job. And so his "solution" isn't one at all.
Border Patrol agents have spent the last decade engaged in a vain and futile effort to avoid facing the reality that we are in an era of mass human migration and displacement, and asylum seekers are going to be the number 1 flow going forward. They just can't process that fact.
Read 4 tweets

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