Border Patrol leaders say they need more border wall

Two senior Border Patrol chiefs told Congress on Tuesday that the agency needs more border barriers, saying that walls and other tools help shape and control the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs crossing into the U.S.

Gloria Chavez, the chief patrol agent in the Rio Grande Valley sector of southern Texas, said there are portions of her region that are “unprotected at this current time.”

And John Modlin, chief patrol agent in Arizona’s Tucson sector, said in his area they got plenty of barriers during the Trump administration but the halt in construction under the current administration left them with “gaps” that must be filled.

The statements run contrary to the position of President Biden, who halted wall construction on his first day in office and has opposed more construction throughout his tenure.

“There’s locations in my AOR, my area of responsibility, that requires barriers, that’s unprotected at this current time, as well as gates. Gates are super important for us and currently there’s gates that are not there that leave us vulnerable,” Chief Chavez said.

Chief Modlin said the Tucson area got about 120 miles of new barriers built under President Trump. But he said the wall panels were just one part of what was supposed to be a “wall system.” The system was supposed to also have fiber optic cables that support sensors and other tools to detect incursions and roads that allow agents to respond quickly to those incursions.

He also said they were left with “gaps” in the wall that he wants filled.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has announced limited plans to fill some gaps, defying Mr. Biden’s campaign vow not to build “another foot” of wall. But Chief Modlin said his sector has not yet benefitted from gap-filling.

“We look forward to the gaps being closed,” he told the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

The agents’ testimony was groundbreaking in that it was the first hearing of senior career Border Patrol officials in the new GOP Congress — and indeed during Mr. Biden’s administration.
The officials repeatedly painted a different picture than that offered by Mr. Mayorkas and other political appointees.

“It’s the policy of this administration. We do not agree with the building of the wall,” the secretary said in late 2021.

But the agents Tuesday said walls are a valuable tool when done right.

Chief Chavez said the wall system serves as a force multiplier, meaning it takes fewer agents to patrol the border because they have more awareness thanks to sensors, and can get to breaches faster thanks to the roads.

Chief Modlin said when he was a younger agent in San Diego the U.S. side of the border was “uninhabitable” because “thousands of people” came across every night, and property crime rates were high.

Eventually a double wall was built and more agents were deployed and he said things changed dramatically.

“If you look at it now, there’s very expensive homes in those areas and the community flourishes in an area that it one time was uninhabitable,” he said.

The wall was the most visible campaign promise of former President Donald Trump. When Congress only gave him part of the funding, he used emergency powers to circumvent Congress and divert Pentagon money toward construction.

Mr. Biden, upon taking office, halted wall construction and took back unspent Pentagon money.

But some $2 billion in money Congress did allocate has sat unused.

Mr. Biden faces legal questions over that money. Since Congress allocated it for wall construction, it must be used for that purpose and at some point the delay crosses the line to obstruction of Congress’s intent, the Government Accountability Office has suggested.

Roughly 450 miles of new barriers were erected on Mr. Trump’s watch.

But less than half of that was fully endowed with the technology, lighting and roads that make up the full wall system.