In recent weeks, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised Border Patrol Agents and promised to help them gain control over an overwhelming surge in migrants. However, he has consistently ignored their expertise in a single area: the border walls.

Senior agents told Congress the wall, along with the cameras, lights, sensors, and roads, is an important tool for shaping action at the border.

The wall is a “force multiplier” according to some. Others claim that it gives agents an “advantage” over cartels, and the migrants who are smuggled into the U.S.

These revelations were made in interviews conducted by the House Oversight and Accountability and Homeland Security Committees. The committees released a report on Tuesday that detailed the agents’ opinions about the chaos at border crossings, the need to increase detention for illegal immigrants, and the value of wall.

It slows people down as they approach, so that we have time to react and make an arrest. The barriers also move people. The barriers make it more difficult for people to pass through, so they go to areas where there are no barriers.

At least seven of the nine border sector chiefs in the southwest said that walls are effective. The committees interviewed them over a period of six months in the past year to gather data on the migration crises.

They said that they didn’t have enough agents on the border to deal with all of the illegal immigrants, and had to remove officers from the field. The border chiefs said that migrants were pouring into the undefended areas. These migrants are called “gotaways” and are the most concerning of the people flow.

The agents claimed that cartels are enemies, who control border traffic while raking up cash.

The House was holding hearings to impeach Mr. Mayorkas at the time the committees released their report. Republicans claim that the secretary mismanaged border issues, did not follow laws, disregarded court orders, and lied both to Congress and to the public. He deserved to become the first cabinet member to be impeached.

James Comer of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, a Kentucky Republican, stated that the testimony from the agents shows just how bad things have gotten.

The Biden administration failed to secure the southern border, and did not provide the necessary tools for those brave individuals who tried to control border sectors. Comer stated that fundamental change is needed from the White House to stop transnational criminal groups from profiting from the border disaster.

Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, Tennessee Republican said that the chief agents of the border patrol gave “shocking insight” into the management of Mr. Mayorkas.

He said: “For three long years, men and women from the United States Border Patrol did their jobs with courage despite Secretary Mayorkas’s attempts to tie their hands behind them.”

They said that their role was limited to border defense, but the agents’ perceptions are influenced by what is happening in the interior. The migrants consider the catch-and release program a success and encourage more people to travel to the U.S.

“I believe that everyone should be held, except for the rare case where someone has a bizarre medical condition. John R. Modlin is chief patrol agent for the Tucson sector. He said that this is the best way to discourage illegal immigration. “You have to hold people until they get a hearing.”

Dustin Caudle is the deputy chief patrol agent for the Yuma Sector. He said that “word spread quickly” when the region started to send migrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the detention agency) instead of releasing them quickly.

He said that “a lot of this flow, a great deal of traffic that used to come to Yuma has been displaced into other sectors around it, so that area became a less desirable crossing because of the consequences impacts we had leveraged.”

One interviewer from a committee asked: “So, how do consequences work?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” replied Chief Caudle.

The Biden Administration has largely reduced detention populations, and asked Congress to reduce the Department’s daily bed capacity from 34,000 to 25,000. The administration has only recently reversed its course and increased the number of detentions.

The facilities were only available to adults. The Biden administration closed the family facilities that were opened under the Obama administration. This means the 40% of migrants entering as families cannot be held beyond a couple days.

After more than 450 mile of border barrier was erected under the Trump administration, the agents sang praises for the border wall.

They said that the wall was particularly effective in stopping vehicle incursions, and defining where migrants were crossing on foot, giving agents better chances to respond.

Chief Caudle stated, “It enables me to focus my manpower more accurately on a specific daily task. That is the entire intent of the system.”

He said that in his testimony last year, the Biden Administration’s decision to stop border wall construction had left some gaps. Only a few of these had been filled. Construction on cameras, lighting, and sensors for detecting incursions was also stopped.

He testified that “all of these things were intended to be part the border wall system. All of those projects have been stopped, and they are still in various stages even today.”

Four chiefs have specifically stated that they want more border walls to be built in their sector.

Mr. Mayorkas consistently minimizes the value of a fence.

He told the senators in 2021 that the money spent by the previous administration on the wall had been a “waste”.

In his testimony, he stated that “the border wall was not in many ways the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars for border security.”

He repeated this stance a year later: “The commitment to this administration is to not continue to build the Wall.”

In October, he reiterated that “more border walls” is not the solution.

When asked in October about the walls, President Biden rejected this idea as well.

He told reporters, “No.”

Biden and Mayorkas repeatedly asked Congress to withdraw money budgeted for the construction of a wall, but Capitol Hill refused. In fact, due to a spending law from the Trump era, the administration announced that it would reluctantly restart some wall building in the fall.

If the administration had refused to restart the process, they would have broken the law. This would have given Republicans a strong argument to impeach Mayorkas.

The Homeland Security Department responded to questions in this report by saying it focuses on manpower, technology, and “barriers when appropriate.” This includes closing what they t