As immigration emerges as key election issue, experts provide insights on border situation

Immigration has become a flashpoint this election cycle and is expected to be a key issue in Thursday’s debate between President Biden and Donald Trump. Laura Barrón-López has on-the-ground perspectives of the situation at the southern border from Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, and immigration attorney Jennifer Babaie, who works with asylum seekers in El Paso.

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Amna Nawaz: Immigration has become a flash point this election cycle, and it’s expected to be a key issue in Thursday’s presidential debate.

White House correspondent Laura Barron-Lopez has more — Laura.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Thanks, Amna.

On the trail, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly made baseless claims blaming undocumented migrants for a violent crime wave. But, nationwide, violent crime is down 15 percent and undocumented immigrants are 26 percent less likely than native-born Americans to be arrested and convicted of murder, according to a new report in Texas from the libertarian Cato Institute.

On the southern border today, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said President Biden’s policies are working. Weekly average border encounters have decreased more than 40 percent, the lowest level of encounters since January 2021.

For an on-the-ground perspective of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, first, we’re joined by Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona.

Sheriff Dannels, thank you for joining the “NewsHour.”

I wanted to ask you. The Biden administration today says border encounters are down, including in your area of the border. Are you seeing that decrease?

Mark Dannels, Cochise County, Arizona, Sheriff: Well, I went back and looked and I asked my border team to give me some stats. And we are down. And we saw this trend come in here about a month ago when we look at the stats.

So they are down. But I think, if you look at the overall picture, what’s going on, two years ago, this was a crisis, even with the numbers we’re seeing today, and which means it’s still a crisis. I love to see the success, but we’re not where we need to be.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Your county is along the southeastern border of Arizona with Mexico. Help us understand what the day-to-day is like for you and your team.

Mark Dannels: Well, we deal with the got-aways, which these are people that are not given up. These are the people that are smuggled under the control of the criminal cartels. They jump in vehicles. They go 100 miles an hour through my communities.

Again, over 28 months, we booked just under 3,400 people for border-related crimes in my county. The smuggling is still going on. It’s not like it’s gone away. And the — it’s nice to celebrate what’s going on, like Secretary Mayorkas is doing.

But let’s not forget, for three-and-a-half years, we have seen tragedy after tragedy, up to death, not just in Cochise County, but throughout our Southwest border and beyond, now within our community. So we need to be real to it too and not celebrate too early. There’s nothing to be celebrating about yet. Let’s get a handle on this.

Laura Barron-Lopez: You said you’re dealing with a lot of border-related crimes. What kind of crimes?

Mark Dannels: Everything from drugs, stolen vehicles, people with warrants. And these are the ones coming here.

I think it’s important to note, out of the almost 3,400 people that were arrested and booked into our three jails here in my county, only 190 were foreign-born or legally in the country. These are people that are coming from all over the United States. A lot of them have criminal histories. They come down here and sell them cars.

They bring their fentanyl with them. They bring their crimes with them. And that’s what we’re addressing as they come into my county to disturb our quality of life here. And then you look at the pursuits. They pick up, they go 100 or some miles an hour through our communities, which ends up a lot of times in crashes. People are injured. People are killed.

Again, sad situation, and that has not stopped.

Laura Barron-Lopez: You say that the border encounters are down in your area of the border. President Biden recently put a crackdown in place, temporarily blocking asylum seekers between ports of entry.

What else do you want to see him do?

Mark Dannels: Well, we still need to follow the rule of law.

Again, what I was briefed on a couple of days ago was the numbers. This was a — they used like 4,000 — like 4,200 people had crossed the day before, when I was in Oklahoma City. Out of those 4,200 people, let’s just be real with the math, he stated 1,900, almost 2,000, were released into the country, not deported, not told to go back.

We still need to look at coming across the border illegally is a crime. It needs to be addressed. It needs to be — persons need to be expelled, as federal law states. We’re not doing that. We are now accepting what I call a celebratory new norm, which is, it’s OK to come across the border illegally.

A percentage gets to stay, and the rest, we will address accordingly.

Laura Barron-Lopez: So what else do you think, though, that the federal government should do? Would you support that bipartisan border deal that Republicans voted against?

Mark Dannels: I think we need to support bipartisan laws, measures and reform. I truly do. I’m all about that, because they were elected no different than I was.

And that is to protect our communities, protect our citizens and protect our country. And when you put your political party above the people, you’re going to fail every time. And that’s what I think Congress is doing. Even parts of White House is doing this.

For three-and-a-half years, we have been dealing with a tragedy on the border. And let’s do this collectively with our federal government. And let’s do it right.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Arizona, thank you for your time.

Mark Dannels: Thank you for having me.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Now, for another perspective, from the Texas-Mexico border, we’re joined by immigration attorney Jennifer Babaie, who works with asylum seekers in El Paso.

Jennifer, thank you so much for joining.

President Biden recently put new restrictions on asylum seekers. And we just spoke to Sheriff Mark Dannels in Cochise County, who said that he’s seen some decrease in border encounters, but still called it a crisis. What are you seeing at the El Paso border?

Jennifer Babaie, Director of Advocacy and Legal Services, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center: We are seeing so much fear, confusion and just overall frustration from the families and the individuals I have spoken to since the suspension came down.

People are at a loss of what to do. They’re trying their best to understand the new rules and to comply with them. But I have got to say we haven’t seen new appointments issued by the administration since CBP-1 was rolled out late last year.

And we are also cutting off all access to asylum. So families are at their wit’s end of where they’re supposed to go from here.

Laura Barron-Lopez: CBP-1 meaning the Customs and Border Protection app for — that asylum seekers can use.

What are you hearing from migrants that you’re speaking to? Are they aware of the crackdown at the border? And are more families deciding to send their kids over alone, since unaccompanied minors are still allowed in?

Jennifer Babaie: We’re going to be seeing lots of troubling patterns increasing in the next few months.

Already, in these last three weeks, we have seen single mothers with children turned away for something as small as CBP didn’t believe they had a translator available to interview the person. And most people are not aware or understand the change in the rules, because they are so complex.

The executive order does nothing to actually stop or prevent someone from coming up to seek asylum. But what it does do is brutally then close the door in their face and say, go back to Mexico, go back home or stay in detention, and we will give you a removal order before you do leave.

So it’s a brutal mechanism. And trying to explain this to families who are at the end of their journey and hoping to find safety in the U.S. is a complex matter.

Laura Barron-Lopez: That executive order that President Biden issued about three weeks ago now, the administration said, was about taking pressure off of an overwhelmed immigration system. And it makes it so asylum seekers can’t declare asylum between ports of entry.

Are you seeing any progress in that area when it comes to helping an overwhelmed immigration system?

Jennifer Babaie: Absolutely not.

The facts on the ground are that, although the executive order reads innocuous and the stated goals are efficiency, what’s happening is that we are simply telling more and more people they’re ineligible for asylum, but the government, meaning Border Patrol, law enforcement, still has to process them at the border.

So nothing in this suspension is targeting the reason for the backlog, which is, people need access to information, they need access to attorneys, they need court dates. And this order does nothing to fix any of those issues.

Laura Barron-Lopez: What’s next for the migrants that you’re working with? What options do they have left?

Jennifer Babaie: It is a dismal time as an advocate to speak with individuals about their options, because there are close to none.

For individuals that I have interviewed in Mexico, many have traveled days, weeks to come to that area. And they’re also facing discrimination by law enforcement officials in Mexico. So not only are they meeting a closed door when they are attempting to seek safety here, but they are getting pushback and altercations with law enforcement in Mexico.

We’re even seeing that unaccompanied children are being prevented from coming to the port of entry and trying to seek safety. And it’s leading to family separation, meaning it’s leading to families making impossible choices about how will they try to leave a shelter, walk up to the border and try to seek safety with or without other members of their family because of their fear of what will happen if they remain in Mexico another day.

Laura Barron-Lopez: Jennifer Babaie in El Paso, Texas, thank you for your time.

Jennifer Babaie: Thank you for having me.