Can Congress address the situation on the US southern border?
(NewsNation) — Will a bipartisan immigration deal from Congress be enough to deal with the situation on the U.S. border?
Ronald Vitello, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke with NewsNation about the challenges faced by those responsible for border security.
“We need to have an immigration framework, we need to have facilities at the border that augment what the Border Patrol is already doing,” Vitello said.
Congress is currently attempting to negotiate a deal as Title 42 immigration restrictions are set to end. Title 42 allowed border patrol agents to turn people away at the border even if they were seeking asylum, due to COVID-19 concerns.
Vitello also said the threshold for asylum is so low many migrants coming to the U.S. qualify under the current definition.
“The problem is that there’s no detention for folks,” he said. “There’s no repatriation agreements for many of these countries.”
Watch the full interview in the player above.