The U.S.-Mexico border has been so overwhelmed under President Joe Biden that roughly 50,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border were released without being given a court date.
According to a report Tuesday from Axios, instead of a court date, those released have been given a list of contacts and locations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices all around the country. They have been told to report at “one of them” within a 60-day window.
The apparent hope is that after reaching their destination — wherever that may be — the migrants will travel to an ICE office to obtain work permits.
One source who had been briefed on data from the Department of Homeland Security told Axios that as of Monday, of all the immigrants who crossed the border illegally from the middle of March to mid-July, only 6,700 of them — 13 percent — had appeared at an ICE office.
The report said 16,000 migrants who have surpassed their 60-day window to report still have not done so.
Additionally, about 27,000 other migrants from the same time frame who crossed the border and were released have not reported but are still within the 60-day window, according to the outlet. An unidentified DHS official told Axios that almost 70 percent of the migrants had either reported to ICE or were still within the time frame to report.
Meanwhile, Meira Bernstein, deputy assistant secretary for media operations at DHS, told Axios that many individuals are proactively contacting ICE to start their formal immigration processing, which includes obtaining their Notice to Appear.
“Those who do not report, like anyone who is in our country without legal status, are subject to removal by ICE,” Bernstein told the outlet.
Obviously, the ones who are reporting are doing what they are supposed to. However, it is worrisome to know many of the migrants likely won’t report, and we do not even know who they are, where they are or what their plans are. Moreover, how will they be removed by ICE if nobody knows where they are?
Axios previously reported that multiple sources referred to Border Patrol’s prosecutorial discretion in releasing migrants without a court appearance notice as being “unprecedented.”
Many places at the border are experiencing surges of illegal immigration that enforcement agencies simply can not keep up with. This is yet another direct result of the Biden administration’s laissez-faire border enforcement policy.
According to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, apprehensions by the Border Patrol from October to June surpassed 1 million.
Brian Hastings, chief Border Patrol agent for the sector of Rio Grande Valley in Texas, tweeted Sunday that more than 20,000 illegal migrants were apprehended in just one week.
It's the hottest part of the summer and apprehensions are skyrocketing! #USBP Apprehensions surpassed the 1-million milestone in June.
NOW- this week alone – #RGV has apprehended more than 20K illegally present migrants. pic.twitter.com/chGrcYGC3Q
— Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings (@USBPChiefRGV) July 25, 2021
As for the Biden administration, it is continuing to critique former President Donald Trump’s border policies as well as focusing on the root causes of immigration from Central America.
On Tuesday, the White House released a “fact sheet” on its immigration plans in which it claimed that in its first six months, “the Administration has made considerable progress to build a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system while continuing to call on Congress to make long overdue reforms to U.S. immigration laws.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration has accomplished this and more while reckoning with the prior Administration’s cruel and reckless immigration policies, which exacerbated long-standing challenges and failed to securely manage our border,” the release said.
It added, “We will always be a nation of borders, and we will enforce our immigration laws in a way that is fair and just. We will continue to work to fortify an orderly immigration system.”
Despite this touting of progress, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted at the end of June, 51 percent of people disapproved of Biden’s handling of the immigration situation at the border.
Words don’t mean much when the actions and data do not support the narrative. The fact that the federal government is allowing illegal immigrants to travel throughout the country, while hoping they will check in with ICE when they are supposed to, is not what I would call “progress.”
At the same time that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking American citizens to once again “mask up,” the federal government is simultaneously releasing unknown people into our country with no medical documentation, no mask requirements, no vaccine, nothing.
This makes zero sense.
More than just the blatant double-standard regarding COVID-19 guidance, though, is the fact that our government is releasing people who have entered our country illegally, is not giving them court dates and is presuming they will all just “do the right thing.” It is a troubling notion because we have no way of telling who these people are or what they may have done in the past.
Some of those who have not reported are probably confused or unsure about what actions they need to take after being released. We all know how unclear government documents can be at times.
However, it is also likely that others are abusing the leniency they receive from the government. That is what is most concerning about this.
Not only do we not know their personal histories, but we have no way of telling where they are off to or what their intentions are. It is clear that they are dispersing all across the interior United States, and the government has no way of keeping track of these migrants unless they report at an ICE station somewhere.
It is difficult to say how many migrants will end up reporting during their designated window to do so. Only time will tell.
One thing seems certain, however: Our issues at the border will not promptly be resolved so long as we are living in Biden’s America. They will only continue to get worse.