Biden administration border progress claims scrutinized after Title 42 end
Sarah Bedford
Video Embed
As the Biden administration takes a victory lap on what it says is a drop in illegal border crossings since the end of Title 42, critics contend the situation remains as dire as ever roughly one month since the change.
The Department of Homeland Security said this week that despite predictions from Republicans of a surge, illegal crossings fell dramatically after the administration ended a public health authority that had allowed the DHS to remove immigrants in the name of containing COVID-19.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS PUT STRAIN ON BLUE-CITY RESOURCES AMID BORDER CRISIS
“As a result of planning and execution … unlawful entries between ports of entry along the Southwest Border have decreased by more than 70% since May 11,” the agency said in a statement.
DHS officials also touted the “significant expansions in lawful pathways” offered to migrants who arrive at the border, as well as what they said was tougher law enforcement.
However, some experts said the administration is simply funneling migrants into the country without truly following existing law.
“These are not legal pathways. These are just pathways that the administration is inventing,” Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Washington Examiner.
The day Title 42 expired, the Biden administration began operating under what’s known as Title 8. That immigration law, in theory, allows the federal government to deport immigrants who attempt to cross the border without documentation and hit them with criminal charges if they attempt to do so again.
In practice, Mehlman said, the Biden administration has carved out so many exceptions to the rules that few can expect to be deported.
“The number of people coming up from Central and South America is very steady, if not rising, so there’s no indication that the flow is easing up,” he said. “It’s continuing, and the administration, rather than trying to stop it, is just finding creative ways to let people in in a way that doesn’t look so bad.”
The DHS sent more than 1,000 asylum officers and judges to the border in anticipation of a migrant surge when Title 42 ended, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last month.
The border crossing numbers for May have not yet been released.
Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, said she expects the number of Office of Field Operations encounters to have risen relative to the number of Border Patrol encounters last month.
The Office of Field Operations works at the ports of entry where, under the Biden administration’s policies, migrants present themselves to receive swift processing into the United States.
“They want people to only look at the number of people crossing illegally between the ports,” Ries told the Washington Examiner.
“They are not characterizing it correctly because they have told future aliens, instead of crossing between the ports on the southern land border, use this CBP mobile One app, make an appointment to cross at a port of entry, and then they’ll be paroled in for at least two years and given work authorization,” Ries added.
The Biden administration has established a parole program for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigrants that allows them to request quick processing into the country for two years and offers them the ability to apply for employment authorization.
Tens of thousands of migrants per month can enter the U.S. using the program, which was initially designed to provide temporary admission for foreign nationals facing “urgent humanitarian” crises, not to offer an open door.
DHS has also ramped up the use of CBP One, the Customs and Border Protection mobile app that allows immigrants to schedule appointments to present themselves at ports of entry at the border and submit their personal information in advance to speed up the processing time even more.
Immigrants who are instructed to use the app and who claim asylum or are paroled into the country at ports of entry don’t count toward illegal border crossing numbers, even though they often place the same strain on housing, jobs, and other resources once they arrive.
“They’re moving the apprehensions and encounters off of one set of books onto another,” Mehlman said.
Under Title 42, migrants caught crossing the border illegally could be deported but did not face the threat of a ban on future crossings. Under Title 8, migrants caught crossing the border illegally can face a five-year ban on entering the U.S. and criminal charges.
That means more immigrants are likely to wait in Mexico for an appointment at ports of entry than to attempt to cross between them, which was a relatively consequence-free gambit before Title 42 ended.
President Joe Biden’s approach to immigration has become a political liability as he begins his reelection bid.
Only 33% of registered voters approve of his handling of border security, according to a Fox News poll last month.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In April, Border Patrol officials had 182,114 encounters on the southern border, and Office of Field Operations officials had 29,287 encounters at ports of entry.
The immigrants have placed enormous pressure on cities where border state leaders have sent them in recent months. This week, in New York City, Mayor Eric Adams suggested sending immigrants to residents’ private homes as shelters overflow.