The Biden administration deported fewer than 100 illegal migrant family members after promising to increase penalties at the southern border, CBS News reported Thursday.
The Biden administration announced the program, which is known as Family Expedited Removal Management (FERM), the day before the Trump-era public health order used to expel migrants expired on May 11, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). More than 2,600 migrants have been enrolled in the program, including 1,500 heads of household, while only 80 parents and children have been removed as of last week, according to CBS News, which cited DHS data and a U.S. official who requested anonymity. (RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre Asserts Biden Is ‘Stopping The Flow’ Of Illegal Migrants At The Border)
The program places ankle monitors on heads of households and institutes a curfew for them if they are seeking asylum or have a credible fear of returning to their home country, according to DHS. Families who are not found to have legitimate credible fear claims are “generally” removed from the country.
Migrants apprehended by US Border Patrol agents, walk with their hands on their heads after entering the United States illegally from Mexico on October 6, 2022 in Calexico, California. (Photo by ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration has been trying to showcase its efforts to remove more illegal aliens from the country, sharing videos and statements to promote their actions.
ICE, with @DHSgov and @CBP, facilitated multiple removal flights – including single adults and family units – to Central America and Ecuador as part of dozens of routine removal flights around the world. ▶️https://t.co/tWhbl7fWpP pic.twitter.com/TPWTON9rGF
— ICE (@ICEgov) August 30, 2023
Don’t listen to smugglers!
The U.S. enforces #immigration laws with dozens of removal flights every week ▶️ https://t.co/kMyS2Xhztb pic.twitter.com/aLDj3gV8Ol
— ICE (@ICEgov) August 31, 2023
“FERM is one element of DHS’s operations to enforce U.S. immigration law and to remove individuals and families without a legal basis to stay in the country. Since May 2023, DHS has removed or returned over 200,000 individuals, including over 15,000 individual family unit members,” a DHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The number of migrant families to cross the southern border illegally spiked more than 90% in July when Border Patrol recorded roughly 60,000 encounters, which increased from roughly 31,000 in June, according to federal data.
The Biden administration is scrambling to address the surge by pressuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to increase FERM enrollments and expand it from four to 40 cities, according to CBS News.
“ICE keeps saying, ‘we deport families. See, we’re showing you pictures of the families we’re deporting.’ They keep promoting that. They’re trying to hope that that message will come across. But the reality is that the majority of families are not deported,” Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former DHS immigration official under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, told CBS.
The White House didn’t immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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