EAGLE PASS, Texas (NewsNation) — The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) has endorsed the Senate border bill proposal, which would give President Joe Biden new authority to restrict illegal crossings.
The proposal grants the president the ability to deport migrants without allowing asylum requests and to suspend asylum processing when a weekly average threshold of 5,000 crossings per day is reached.
“This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review, which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the U.S,” NBPC President Brandon Judd said in a statement to NewsNation. “This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide.”
Rodney Scott, who served as the 24th chief of U.S. Customs Border Patrol under both the Trump and Biden administrations, criticizes the proposal, arguing it lacks sufficient measures to strengthen border security.
“For it to be a meaningful border security bill, it had to end catch and release; that was the number one piece of it,” he said. “Regardless of the talking points, even from Sen. Langford currently, if you read the bill, it does not; it codifies in law that many people will be released. It leaves a lot of loopholes in place.”
Scott expressed his disagreement with the NBPC’s endorsement of the bill but understands the rationale behind their decision. He emphasized Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed for the past three years and they need all the assistance they can get.
“I understand that the Border Patrol Union endorsed it. But think about it from their position for a minute, their morale is tanked, they’re overwhelmed and they’re looking for any relief whatsoever. And I honestly don’t blame them for that to a certain extent, but we need to back up and look at what we’re codifying in law,” he said.
The border bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate, with more than 20 senators publicly declaring their disapproval. A test vote is scheduled for Wednesday.