California sheriffs travel to border- are alarmed and appalled by what they saw

Originally written by Katy Grimes for The California Globe. Republished with permission. 

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“The border is closed; the border is secure.” This is one of the most flagrant statements of the 21st Century, spoken by Biden Administration Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz two years ago.
 

No one believed it then and no one believes it now. Because on January 21, 2021, day one of his presidency, newly inaugurated President Joe Biden ordered the border wall construction halted, and dismantled.

Three County Sheriffs just traveled to California’s Southern Border, and said the experience was “eye opening,” “alarming,” “appalling,” and “a national security issue.”

The Globe interviewed Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson, Shasta County Sheriff Mike Johnson, and Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue. The three sheriffs were part of a group of 25 sheriffs from around California who spent three days with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Patrol) at the San Ysidro, San Diego point of border entry. They said they spent much of the first two days learning about the administration of the illegal immigrants crossing the border, and learned that 1,000 people a day are released into the United States at the San Ysidro border with Mexico.

“Until you see it – and the numbers of people – it doesn’t sink in,” Sheriff Anderson told the Globe. “The Border Patrol isn’t hiding anything – there are waves of people coming into our country.”

First, it is important to understand what the Border Patrol is responsible for:

With more than 60,000 employees, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP, is one of the world’s largest law enforcement organizations and is charged with keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the U.S. while facilitating lawful international travel and trade.

Our border patrol is now used as the welcoming committee for illegal immigrants.

The San Ysidro point of entry is the largest land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and is the busiest border entry in the country. It also has the most foot traffic and auto entries, with many Mexican nationals going back and forth daily for work.

Sheriff Johnson said he toured this part of the border with a Deputy Border Patrol Chief who showed him there are two walls – one is California’s and the other is Mexico’s. The area between the walls is about 50-100 yards and is patrolled by border agents.

Sheriff Johnson said anywhere between 30 to 200 people are waiting at the U.S. border wall at any time – like a transient camp – for border agents to pick up and take to the processing center, for processing into the United States. “We pick them up, drive them to the processing center where they are fingerprinted, photographed, and an ID is created for them,” Sheriff Johnson said. “They are at the processing center about 52 hours.”

While at the processing center, border agents are asked where the illegal immigrants are headed. Sheriff Johnson said once they state where they are traveling, they are connected with an ICE agent, provided and ID and set up with welfare, entitlements and benefits, provided a cell phone, and sent to their destination by bus or plane.

“The vast majority are ‘sponsored’ by NGOs, which are funded by the federal government,” Sheriff Johnson said. “It’s such a shell game!”

All three sheriffs told about the processing center, which costs $3 million a month to operate, and that does not include staffing or salaries of the agents.

There is a Walmart, showers, they get vaccines, and treatment for any illnesses. They also receive a citation for being in the U.S. illegally – and a court date 5 years in the future.

Yet, Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said 66% of the drugs smuggled into the United States – Fentanyl, meth, etc. – come through the San Ysidro border point of entry, as does 77% of the human smuggling.

He said border agents told him that they are directed on what to do directly from the White House – that it’s a “do what you are told and nothing else” message.

The sheriffs were told that most politicians do not come to the border to see for themselves the wave of illegal immigrants coming in to this country. But of those who do, most say they did not realize what they voted for.

Some of the illegal immigrants sponsored by U.S. NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and non-profits are believed to be turned over to sex and human traffickers.

Sheriff Anderson said every person who crosses the border pays the cartels a fee; cartels control the borders and ports. And of those who make it across the U.S. border, agents expressed concern that we don’t know their “intentions,” but we have such an obvious infiltration, the sheriffs said it is only a matter of time before a national security situation occurs.

Sheriff Anderson said while he was with Border Patrol, illegal immigrants from Guinea, West Africa were waiting for a ride to the processing center.

Even at the San Ysidro point of entry, there is at least one person a day caught on the terror watch list. They are immediately apprehended, and deported. But if they come from a country which will not accept them back – as so many of the 60 countries with illegal immigrants traveling to the U.S. border do – we are stuck with them.

While there are families and couples coming to the U.S. for a better way of life, the sheriffs all noted that there are mostly military aged men traveling to the U.S. border.

All three Sheriffs said the Border Agents are very frustrated with the lack of cooperation they experience with local police because of SB 54.

In 2017, Sanctuary State status for California was passed under Senate Bill 54, by then-Senator Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles), and signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown. SB 54 prohibits local police departments and sheriffs’ deputies from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and enforcing federal immigration laws.

In 2017, I also covered De León’s SB 54:

Despite amendments, de León’s bill is parsing words—especially those words which apply to criminal illegal aliens. SB 54 still does not address all criminal illegal aliens, whether they are “violent” or “serious” criminals. Apparently, de León is resisting including human traffickers, child abusers, kidnappers, and hostage takers in his bill.

De León instead continues to falsely claim it is ‘maids, laborers, baby sitters and landscapers’ who are being targeted in ICE sweeps… Except that ICE does not do sweeps—ICE agents work in jails targeting only criminal illegal aliens. De León’s bill would force immigration officials to reinstitute sweeps since they would no longer be allowed in jails and prisons, where the criminals are located.

Prior to passage of SB 54, California already had 35 sanctuary cities, which had sanctuary policies prohibiting police from cooperating with immigration authorities. SB 54 made the entire state a sanctuary state, harboring criminal illegal aliens.

Yet Californians strongly oppose “sanctuary city” policies under which local authorities ignore federal requests to detain undocumented immigrants who have been arrested but are about to be released, according to a UC Berkeley poll by the Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), released ahead of SB 54’s passage.

Border Patrol agents say all of the troubles at the border could be ended with a change of administration and policy. But, the millions already in the U.S., courtesy of the Biden Administration, will mostly remain, and many will pose serious problems in the near future.

“We don’t know the ‘intentions’ of those coming to our country,” Sheriff LaRue said. “We have such an obvious infiltration – it is known and not properly addressed.”

The drugs flowing across the border – Sheriff LaRue said border agents found 71,000 kilos of Methamphetamine last year – and that’s just what they found and halted.

“With the amount of drugs and illegal immigrants – we are going to be overrun in no time,” Sheriff Johnson said. “And less than 4% are Mexican nationals,” Sheriff Anderson added.

The sheriffs said there are direct flights from China and Spain to Tijuana, Mexico now – entirely for the border crossings. Some immigrants coming from Europe and China vacation in Cabo for a few days, then make their way across the border, where our border patrol agents have to drop everything, and take care of the illegal immigrants.

One border agent told a sheriff that a well-dressed, recently vacationed illegal immigrant handed him his suitcase as if the agent was a Concierge. “And once they make it through, they call their friends in states around America,” Sheriff Anderson said.

“But what’s coming through that we are not seeing?” he asked. We can’t undo what’s been done – 1.5 million came across our border last year – that we know of,” Sheriff Anderson added. “When something does happen, who will we hold accountable?”

UPDATE: The Globe was contacted by a Public Affairs Officer with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who provided additional information about the processing of illegal immigrants at the border. She said the “cell phones” provided may look like iPhones but are not standard cell phones. They are communication devices as part of the ICE “Alternatives to Detention” program “to ensure compliance with release conditions and provide important case management services for non-detained noncitizens.” The phones only communicate with ICE, and the illegal immigrants cannot use them to make calls or to download apps.

As for returning illegal immigrants on the terror watch list to countries considered “recalcitrant,” she provided this explanation:

“When specific countries deny or delay accepting their nationals with final orders of removal from the United States, the U.S. government may issue visa sanctions as a means of encouraging the recalcitrant country to cooperate. In accordance with Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Secretary of Homeland Security notifies the Secretary of State that multiple governments have denied or unreasonably delayed the acceptance of a national or nationals ordered removed from the United States.

As a result, the Secretary of State may order U.S. consular officers at U.S. embassies and consulates in these countries to implement visa restrictions on certain categories of visa applicants. These sanctions may remain in place until the Secretary of Homeland Security notifies the Secretary of State that removal cooperation has improved to an acceptable level.”