Border Patrol Sector Chief: Whether We Release People Depends ‘A Lot of Times’ on ‘Capability or Capacity’ of Mexico to Receive People

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s “NBC Nightly News,” Brian Hastings, the Chief Patrol Agent for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector said that single adult males are being released into the United States because “We have to depend a lot of times on what the capability or capacity of Mexico is” to receive families.

NBC Correspondent Julia Ainsley said, “The stated policy that we hear in Washington is that only unaccompanied children are allowed in right now. But what we saw firsthand in this sector is that even single adult males are being released.”

Hastings responded, “We have to depend a lot of times on what the capability or capacity of Mexico is to receive those families.”

He also stated that this complicates the ability to send a message that the border is closed.

Ainsley further reported that Hastings told them that “so far this year, 17% of all families and single adults apprehended by his agents have been released into the U.S.”

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