Former acting ICE director Tom Homan [Note 1] says Democratic leadership has not done one thing to fix the crisis at the U.S. – Mexico border.
Faced with falling morale, increasing retirements and a shortage of new agents, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced a 5 percent bonus for agents willing to stay with the agency another year.
John Bash (Western District of Texas, US Attorney) says due to a massive number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants on the southern border, there are less Border Patrol agents in the field.
And, the U.S. is on target to receive more migrants at the southern border. BBC News YouTube 2:57 mins.
Democrats have largely avoided talking about border-security ideas. Most of the party’s presidential candidates have focused on expanding access to health care and other economic measures intended to boost the middle class, and have touched on immigration only in broad strokes.
Last week, Julián Castro ( Democratic Candidate for President) released a formal immigration policy, making him the first candidate to do so. MSNBC YouTube 11:17 mins.
Extra Note for Newbies
[1] Ronald Vitiello replaced Thomas Homan (who retired in June, 2018).
Earlier this month, Trump informed the Senate that he was withdrawing his nomination of Vitiello for Director of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
Speculative reasons for this has been that factions of ICE agents in the agency’s union are not supportive of Vitiello. Also, Vitiello has kept a lower profile than his predecessors. It’s possible that Trump wants someone who will be more vocal to undocumented immigrants.
Trump has since backed down from this threat.