- The Biden administration’s suggestions that the crisis at the southern border is improving doesn’t account for the new surge in migrants crossing through ports of entry.
- While illegal migrant encounters at the southern border decreased, the number of migrants crossing through ports of entry jumped from roughly 28,000 in April to nearly 35,000 in May, according to federal data.
- Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, however, believes the Biden administration is just shifting migrants who would otherwise cross the southern border illegally to the ports of entry, making the numbers appear lower, he previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation, describing the use of CBP One as part of a “shell game.”
The Biden administration has claimed success in its handling of the crisis at the southern border, but there’s more to the story that shows migrant crossings are still high.
Biden’s plan to mitigate an expected flow of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border included the expanded use of CBP One, a phone app allowing them to schedule entry at the ports and humanitarian parole. Since then, illegal crossings between ports of entry have dropped, though not below the pre-pandemic levels seen under the Trump administration, while entries through the ports have increased. (RELATED: Top Biden Immigration Official Called To ‘Abolish’ ICE, End Detention Of Illegal Immigrants)
“The Administration’s plan is working as intended. We are cognizant, however, that the conditions in the hemisphere that are driving unprecedented movements of people are still present and that the cartels and coyotes will continue to spread disinformation about any potential changes to policies at the border in order to put migrants’ lives at risk for profit. We will remain vigilant and continue to execute our plan, making adjustments where needed,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in June.
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) acting Commissioner Mark Morgan, however, believes the Biden administration is just shifting migrants who would otherwise cross the southern border illegally to the ports of entry, making the numbers appear lower, he previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation, describing the use of CBP One as part of a “shell game.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green also called the Biden administration’s border programs a “shell game” in a recent interview with the DCNF.
“There’s the lying to Congress, there’s the CBP One app, which is just this big shell game to produce automatic mass parole in violation of the laws passed by Congress. It is a wanton disregard for the separation of powers and the Constitution of the United States,” Green said.
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The Biden administration in June expanded the CBP One program to allow 40,000 migrants to enter each month, which it increased from 1,000 appointments per day. The number of migrants crossing through ports of entry jumped from roughly 28,000 in April to nearly 35,000 in May, according to federal data.
Illegal crossings between ports at the southern border also haven’t dipped to the low levels seen during the Trump administration even with the roughly 100,000 recorded in June, according to CBS News.
“It’s kind of like gas prices. You run the gas prices up to $5 and then you drop it back to $4. You brag about it, but it was still $2 higher than what it was before,” Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, who recently launched a Senate campaign, told the DCNF previously.
Inside Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities for processing those that crossed illegally, migrants are being held longer than the 72-hour limit the agency advises, according to CNN. Some DHS officials say that it’s due to the Biden administration’s new policy to hold certain migrants until they have a credible fear screening.
Out of 10,000 migrants held in custody last week, 1,000 of them had spent more than 10 days in custody, according to CNN.
Still, the Biden administration touts its new entry policies and its increased reliance on expedited removals as improving the crisis at the southern border.
“Some of that drop can be attributed to the strengthened consequences that we are implementing at the border,” Blas Nuñez Neto, the assistant secretary for immigration and border policy at the DHS, told CBS News in an interview Wednesday.
“What we’ve seen in the past is that, because of the congressional inaction and inability to address the underlying factors in our immigration system that are contributing to these now-regular surges in migration under presidents of both parties, migrants are coming to the border to claim asylum because they know that the system is broken and it will take years for them to go through the process,” Nuñez Neto added.
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