McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) – Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol chief told a congressional committee Tuesday that the border wall is a “tool” her agents rely on to prevent migrants from illegally crossing the southwestern border.

“The barrier is just one of many tools that agents use to get the job done at the border. Therefore, I think that the barrier is effective at certain strategic points along the border to control everything that can happen, whether it be vehicles or people who are trying to enter through certain places,” said Gloria Chavez, Chief Patrol Agent of the RGV Sector Border Guard. Control and accountability.

Chavez testified for more than four hours on Tuesday. She was joined by Tucson Sector Border Patrol Chief John Maudlin, who also testified to the difficulty of covering vast stretches of border areas with limited resources.

It was the second hearing on border issues in the new Republican-led House of Representatives in a week. We are talking about a monthly increase in the number of detentions of migrants crossing the border from Mexico, and lethal drugs such as fentanyl entering the country.

The hearing came just hours before President Joe Biden was due to give his State of the Union address to Congress, during which he is expected to address the surge in immigration and drugs on the southwestern frontier.

Oversight committee chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, began the hearing by saying that “conditions on the border are dangerous, chaotic and inhumane.”

Democratic Vice Chairman Jamie Raskin of Maryland said the Biden administration sent $7.3 billion in funding and resources to the southern border last year, including more money for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at ports of entry and billions of dollars to hire additional employees. Border guard agents, all to maintain “order at the border.”

Comer said that in fiscal year 2022, there were about 600,000 “runaways” or migrants who managed to escape detention.

“President Biden and his administration created the worst border crisis in history,” Comer said.

In fiscal 2022, the border agency encountered migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border more than 2.2 million times, according to CBP. This is more than 1.9 million in FY 2021 and 646,000 in FY 2020.

The El Paso sector this week reported that during the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, which began in October, the total number of migrant encounters was 162,603, up 231% from the same period last fiscal year.

Maudlin revealed that his agents mainly encounter lone adults who attempt to evade Border Patrol Agents by traversing dangerous terrain into mountains and deserts. The Tucson sector covers 18,000 square miles, and he said border guard agents responded to more than 3,500 lost or injured migrants last year.

Chavez says border patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas mostly run into Central American families who voluntarily surrender and seek asylum in the United States.

The RGV sector includes 34,000 miles along the border with Mexico, including 317 coastal miles in the Gulf of Mexico.

“RGV is defined by cartels and transnational criminal organizations as the main corridor that is used daily,” Chavez said.

Both leaders said transnational crime organizations and drug cartels control all northern routes south of the border. Chavez said all migrants must pay smugglers to cross the border.

Modlin said that lately large groups of migrants have been coming to his agents, whom the smugglers then break up into smaller groups, “which then all cross at different places at the same time and saturate our agents.”

He calls it “task saturation” and says it drains law enforcement resources at the border.

Chavez said partnerships and work with local and state governments, such as the South Texas license plate reader program, help border patrol agents and CBP officers be alerted to potential threats at the border.

She said partnering with law enforcement through the federally subsidized Operation Stonegarden is helping to strengthen law enforcement at the border.

“Operation Stonegarden is a phenomenal relief program,” Chavez said.

Maudlin said 700 pounds of fentanyl were seized in the Tucson sector last year — “enough to kill the population of the United States.”

According to him, most of the drugs were seized on the spot.

But in South Texas, Chavez said, most drugs come through ports of entry, not by migrants between ports. This includes 25 pounds of liquid fentanyl seized at the port in December, the largest amount to date, she said.

Raskin said that according to the data, 86% of people convicted of fentanyl smuggling in 2021 were U.S. citizens who “were on the payroll of criminal operations.”

Most of the committee’s comments and questions were strongly left or right, depending on their political party.

“What I find interesting is that, despite the successes, what we hear is an attempt to characterize the seizures as a failure,” said Rep. Cathy Porter, D-California. “For me, the fact that you are seizing these drugs is a success.”

“You must immediately take action to stop what is your immediate problem, for example: runaways. You have to pick them up and put them on a plane far south of the border,” Rep. Pete Sessions, a Republican from Waco, Texas, told the chiefs. “They pose a threat to the security of this country.”

Rep. Tony Gonzalez, a Republican whose county includes the largest stretch of the Texas border, was the last to speak. He’s not on the committee, but he was an invited guest.

“It is high time for Congress and this administration to stop playing political games and do something,” Gonzalez said.

He said he spent Christmas at the border and watched border guards get stressed out by too much work and saw a small migrant child clutching his mother’s hand in fear.

“Will additional forces and technologies help start guarding the border?” Gonzalez asked.

“Yes. Manpower and technology will be of great importance for us to ensure the security of the border,” Chavez said.