Border Patrol agents have seen their mission become more difficult over the past eight years, largely due to the Obama administration’s policy of releasing illegal immigrants apprehended at the border into the U.S., according to the leader of the Border Patrol agents’ union.
“The single biggest factor driving our illegal immigration right now is our catch and release program,” Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, explained in written testimony prepared for a hearing Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest.
When illegal immigrants are detained at or near the border, Border Patrol interviews them and, in many cases, must release them into the U.S. All the illegal immigrant must do, Judd wrote, is claim he or she has been in the U.S. since 2014, and agents release them.