Border Patrol Chief Says Smugglers Are ‘Absolutely’ Dictating Flow of Illegal Immigrants Across Border

Jason Owens, chief Border Patrol agent of the Border Patrol training facility in Artesia, N.M., on April 1, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens has revealed that a criminal network of people smugglers is “absolutely” dictating the flow of illegal immigrants into the country at the moment.

In a March 24 interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” he said the agency is on track to record more than 1 million illegal immigrant apprehensions since the start of 2024, with most crossings being aided by a criminal network of smugglers.

According to Mr. Owens, people smugglers are dictating “what the flow is going to look like” and then “we respond to it,” which is what they want.

“They‘ll push groups across knowing that we’ll respond from a humanitarian perspective and make sure that they’re safe,” he said.

“And while we’re tied up and occupied doing this, what are they doing a couple [of] miles down the road?”

Border Patrol has encountered more than 7.6 million illegal immigrants trying to cross the border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. Mr. Owens said his agency is doing its best to “get out in front of it” and shut down the smugglers, but the sheer size of the border and a relatively small number of Border Patrol personnel make it impossible to slow the flood of people.

“At the end of the day, there’s over 1,900 miles of border with Mexico. Now, when you talk about 20,000 Border Patrol agents, that sound like a lot,” he said.

“But when you multiply that by 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the entirety of the year, that number starts to dwindle very fast.”

‘Gotaways’ Pose National Security Threat

Record-breaking groups of illegal immigrants crossing the border aside, Mr. Owens said the number of “gotaways”—people who cross the border and aren’t immediately apprehended—is what concerns him most at the moment, calling it a “national security threat.” The latest figures shared by the Border Patrol indicate at least 140,000 people fit into this category.

According to Mr. Owens, because the focus is on processing record numbers of asylum seekers, families, and others who are in distress, potential threats may be slipping across the border into the United States.

“Border security is a big piece of national security. And if we don’t know who is coming into our country and we don’t know what their intent is, that is a threat,” he said.

“And they’re exploiting a vulnerability that’s on our border right now.”

Former federal officials and experts have said in the past that there is a real possibility that hundreds of people on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist have slipped into the United States among the millions of other illegal immigrants over the past three years.

Haitian migrants cross the Rio Grande to get food and water in Mexico, after another crossing point was closed near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. Paul Ratje/AFP via Getty Images

Both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Border Patrol’s former chief, Rodney Scott, have been sounding the alarm about the state of U.S. borders amid an increasing number of known criminals and terror suspects being caught trying to enter the United States.

Customs and Border Protection data show that in fiscal year 2023, which ended in October 2023, Border Patrol agents apprehended 172 people on the watchlist from along the southwest border. However, when all ports of entry are added, the total number rises to 736. Some illegal immigrants were also caught with explosives.

For context, between 2017 and 2019, only 11 people on the terrorist watchlist were caught trying to enter the United States.

Most Illegal Immigrants Good People, Failing to Respect the Law

Despite the threat posed by some individuals, Mr. Owens said that, for the most part, the illegal immigrants encountered by Border Patrol agents are “by and large good people,” fleeing war, economic collapse, and all manner of awful living conditions in their home countries.

“Most of the folks that we’re encountering that are turning themselves in, you know, they’re coming across because they’re either fleeing terrible conditions, or they’re economic migrants looking for a better way of life,” he said.

“It doesn’t make them bad people, it’s just that they’re not being respectful of the laws that we’ve established as a country and they’re actually putting people in this country in harm’s way because they’re pulling the border security apparatus off of task.”

Mr. Owens said that in his view, illegal immigrants need to choose the right way to come into the United States and not begin on the wrong foot by breaking the laws of the land.

Texas National Guard members prevent illegal immigrants from Venezuela from crossing a barbed wire fence at the El Paso Sector Border after crossing the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on Feb. 29, 2024. Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images

“There are still people that we’re finding in those groups, though, that have criminal backgrounds, that have been convicted sexual predators, that have been convicted gang members. A very small amount in that population. But they’re still there,” he said.

Mr. Owens recently called for stricter immigration policies to deter illegal immigrants from crossing the southern border with Mexico, including imposing jail time for violators. He also suggested reviewing the country’s asylum laws to ensure that only illegal immigrants with legitimate claims can seek asylum in the United States. He thinks that if people know that there will be consequences for breaking the law and entering the country illegally, they'll be less likely to do it.

“I think that we need to be able to enforce the immigration laws that are on the books and hold people accountable whenever they choose to break the law,” Mr. Owens said.