Some migrants at the southern border now simply walk into the U.S. due to agents being too overwhelmed to make arrests, The Washington Times reported.
Border Patrol refers to these migrants as "walk-aways," unlike the "gotaways" who have evaded arrest.
Up to hundreds of migrants gather at several spots in Southern California waiting for the agents, the Times reported, and a Biden administration official told a federal judge last week that the migrants are "free to leave" whenever they want.
Mark Morgan, who ran Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration, told the Times that walk-aways are the latest example that what's "driving 85% of this crisis is bad policy."
The migrant crisis, which began in January 2021 with President Joe Biden assuming office, continues.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens on Sunday warned that some migrants coming across the southern border may pose a serious "national security threat."
Smugglers who get illegal migrants into the U.S. "dictate what the flow is going to look like, and we respond to it," Owens told said on "Face the Nation."
"We try and get out in front of it and deny them the ability to use these areas," he added. "But at the end of the day, there's over 1,900 miles of border with Mexico."
Smugglers direct walk-aways to cross the border and then wait, sometimes for days, for agents on the U.S. side of the fence.
Although Border Patrol agents provide food and water, they don't have the manpower or the buses to process and transport the arrivals, the Times reported.
The migrants aren't in custody and can walk away.
"Single adult men, like other populations, are free to leave areas where large groups congregate at any point prior to arrest," Brent L. Schwerdtfeger, the chief of law enforcement operations for the Border Patrol's San Diego sector, told a federal judge last week in a court filing for the Flores Settlement.
The Flores Settlement dictates how the government treats migrant children and families who arrive at the border.
Attorneys representing children and families say leaving their clients and others unattended for days violates the Flores agreement.
Morgan told the Times that agents face "a lesser of the two evils."
"Either take all the resources to make sure no one leaves, leaving other areas even more wide open, or do the best to process as fast as you can so the chances are fewer will walk away, knowing some are going to walk away," he said.