Nielsen orders Border Patrol agent ‘surge’ amid migrant influx

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has ordered the deployment of more U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel to the U.S.-Mexico border, she announced Monday morning.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said Nielsen has ordered CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to implement “emergency surge operations” and accelerate the timeline for reallocating 750 officers to border patrol sectors affected by a recent “influx” of migrants.

{mosads}Nielsen has also directed CBP to expand the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a DHS plan to return migrants to Mexico while they wait for their day in immigration court.

Under Nielsen’s directive, CBP will return hundreds more migrants per day to Mexico, including those caught at or between points of entry, according to DHS.

Nielsen further ordered the agency to plan to expand the MPP plan beyond California and Texas, the locations where it currently operates.

In late March, the El Paso Border Patrol sector temporarily shuttered checkpoints on the U.S. side of the border, telling The Hill that “to process and ensure appropriate care for those in custody, resources including personnel have been diverted from other border security priorities.”

“The crisis at our border is worsening, and DHS will do everything in its power to end it,” Nielsen said in a statement. “We will not stand idly by while Congress fails to act yet again, so all options are on the table. We will immediately redeploy hundreds of CBP personnel to the border to respond to this emergency. We will urgently pursue additional reinforcements from within DHS and the interagency. And we will require those seeking to enter the United States to wait in Mexico until an immigration court has reviewed their claims.”