Townhall’s Julio Rosas has done an amazing job covering the border crisis, which — though you’d never know it if you turned exclusively to mainstream media sources for your news — is still very much an issue and very much a problem.
This past December, Rosas was on the ground in Yuma, Arizona, reporting on the dramatic increase in migrants illegal crossing the southern border. Rosas also reported that Border Patrol agents actively on patrol were extremely difficult to come by:
Been told by a source no Border Patrol agents are actively patrolling large parts of the Yuma Sector because most are processing the immigrants while the few left are only on transport duty, who have been told to not go pick up people until told by higher ups to go.
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 8, 2021
Today, Julio Rosas is back on the Yuma Sector beat, and things have decidedly not improved.
Scoop: The border crisis in the Yuma Sector caused BP agents to miss mandatory weapons/use of force trainings bc most of their time is spent processing daily new arrivals. Agents said they've been worried of getting thrown under the bus if they use force: https://t.co/4Y6ZRTCJGP
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 24, 2022
"Similar to the horse patrol fake 'whipping' scenario, we know that neither the Chief of [Border Patrol] nor the [Homeland Security] Secretary have our backs or our best interest in mind" — BP source.
The "whipping" hoax is very much on BP agents' minds.https://t.co/4Y6ZRTCJGP
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 24, 2022
And who can blame them? The smear campaign against them went all the way up to the White House! We’d be worried about getting thrown under the bus, too, because it’s already happened to them.
CBP confirmed to me agents haven’t been going through the mandatory trainings but they’re working on fixing the issue —> https://t.co/4Y6ZRTCJGP pic.twitter.com/v6bcozY7VS
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 24, 2022
Oh, well. That’s comforting. We’re sure things will turn around next quarter, then.
We apologize for the sarcasm … except not really. Because this whole debacle is nothing short of infuriating:
“This is a direct result of the decisions these [sector] chiefs are forced to make when they are faced with an open border — and the Biden administration has shown no effort to secure it,” said former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott.
“Anytime there’s a major surge or crisis, chiefs have to make decisions minute by minute on where to allocate their personnel.” Often, training goes on the back burner, Scott explained.
…
To date in fiscal year 2022, the Yuma Sector has encountered more than 118,000 people illegally crossing the southern border into the United States. The overwhelming majority of them, 106,595, are not from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador, according to CBP data.
Seems like training should a permanent fixture on the front burner, no?
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