Border residents are 'collateral damage' to decades of poor immigration policies, fourth-generation New Mexico rancher says
DEMING, N.M. – Decades of poor immigration policies made even weaker under Biden’s administration has led a New Mexico rancher to become a caretaker for migrants, the fourth-generation border rancher told Fox News.
"I feel like we are just collateral damage," said Amanda Adame, whose ranch is eight miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. "It's our administration. We need a lot more order."
HOW BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS LED THIS RANCHER INTO CARETAKING FOR MIGRANTS:
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Migrant encounters skyrocketed at the U.S.-Mexico border shortly after President Biden took office, with more than 1.7 million migrant encounters in fiscal 2021 and over 2.3 million in 2022, according to Customs and Border Protection. Crossings have since dropped after Title 42 in May, with less than 145,000 migrant encounters last month compared to nearly 208,000 in June 2022.
Still, nearly three-quarters of Americans across political affiliations said the southern border was either a "crisis" or a "major problem," according to a Gallup poll conducted June 1-22. The number was just two percentage points lower than 2019.
"It's not just the president's fault," Adame said. Congress, also, "can't get their act together and communicate with each other."
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Biden visits the southern border for his first time in January 2023 after nearly two years in office. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Earlier this month, the House Judiciary Committee invited Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to testify on July 26 about concerns over the Biden administration's immigration policies and programs. Some Republican lawmakers have even called for Mayorkas' impeachment over his handling of the border crisis.
Adame, who witnessed the height of the border crisis firsthand, said the federal government needs "to pave the ways for people who want to be here" but must find better methods for curbing illegal immigration.
"I want immigration," Adame said. "That's how our world turns here in the United States. But we just can't let them come unchecked."
The New Mexico rancher has sympathized with some of the migrants she's found in suffering on her property as more migrants have crossed her ranch in recent years. One woman she encountered was walking without shoes. Another was carrying drugs as he headed to the hospital. He died soon after.
"If they run out of water, we end up giving them water," Adame said. "We end up feeding them. Most of the time we end up calling Border Patrol for them. It's not a pleasant experience."
A fourth-generation New Mexico rancher estimates migrant crossings have doubled across her property in the last few years. The photo is blurred to remove Adame's phone number. (Megan Myers/Fox News Digital)
Republican critics have blamed the migrant surge on the Biden administration for rolling back Trump-era policies, including the Migrant Protection Protocols and halting border wall construction. The House Homeland Security Committee has also been investigating Mayorkas’ handling of the border crisis and what members have called a "dereliction of duty."
Some states have taken matters into their own hands. In Texas, for example, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott put up an inflatable water barrier to stop migrants from crossing and started bussing migrants to sanctuary cities. The White House has condemned those actions.
NEW MEXICO RANCHER FEARS FOR HER SAFETY LIVING EIGHT MILES FROM THE SOUTHERN BORDER:
But Mayorkas has argued that the Biden administration has worked within a broken system that Congress has failed to fund and fix, while working to expand legal asylum pathways shut down by the prior administration. Just ahead of Title 42's expiration, the Biden administration removed a migrant release policy that allowed migrants to be released without court dates and returned to Title 8, enforcing stricter penalties for illegal border crossings.
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"I cannot overemphasize that our current situation is the outcome of Congress leaving a broken, outdated immigration system in place for over two decades, despite unanimous agreement that we desperately need legislative reform," Mayorkas said at a news conference in May. "It is also the result of Congress' decision not to provide us with the resources we need and that we requested."
Mayorkas blames Congress for not funding and fixing border issues over the last two decades. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The government needs to "pave the ways for our law enforcement to be able to do a good job and for them to be able to catch people, for them to be able to prosecute the people that they catch," Adame said. "We need immigration reform."
As of May 2023, America's immigration system has become backlogged with over 1.3 million asylum applications, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Multiple administrations have changed or enacted policies to address the immigration system. President George W. Bush, for example, tried to push comprehensive immigration reform through Congress in 2007, but that effort was blocked.
The supplies for Trump's unfinished border wall sit alongside the New Mexico border. Adame says her ranch is just a few miles away from where the wall ends. (Megan Myers/Fox News Digital)
Adame told Fox News she doesn't blame any one person for the border crisis since she's witnessed decades of poor immigration policies. The fourth-generation rancher said some administrations had better plans for addressing the border crisis, like former President Trump's border wall construction, but most have failed to enact lasting change.
"I blame them all," she said. "I'm not against immigration, but I'm against people not coming and doing it the right way. There's got to be something that we can do."
To hear more about life on the southern border at Adame's ranch, click here.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
Megan Myers is an associate producer/writer with Fox News Digital Originals.
