Biden Guts Policies That Cut Down on Asylum Fraud
Source: (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Over the weekend Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced the Biden administration has terminated agreements between the United States and northern triangle countries that significantly cut down on asylum fraud, which caused previous illegal immigration crises on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
"The United States has suspended and initiated the process to terminate the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as the first concrete steps on the path to greater partnership and collaboration in the region laid out by President Biden. The termination of these Agreements is effective after the notice period stipulated in each of the Agreements, but their suspension is immediate," Blinken released in a statement over the weekend.
"To be clear, these actions do not mean that the U.S. border is open. While we are committed to expanding legal pathways for protection and opportunity here and in the region, the United States is a country with borders and laws that must be enforced. We are also committed to providing safe and orderly processing for all who arrive at our border, but those who attempt to migrate irregularly are putting themselves and their families at risk on what can be a very dangerous journey," he continued.
Prior to the agreement made with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, human smuggling and trafficking organizations coached migrants on how to get through the asylum system, despite not qualifying for an asylum designation. This fueled the migrant caravan crisis that started in 2014 and persisted through 2018. New caravans are on the way, citing Biden's lax policies as a justification.
Honduran migrant: President-elect Biden is "going to help all of us." pic.twitter.com/LkrVCsXcSb
— The Hill (@thehill) January 18, 2021
Back in 2019, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham passed legislation out of Committee to close loopholes that fueled asylum fraud.
“I will no longer allow our asylum laws to be exploited by human traffickers, smugglers and cartels,” said Graham. “Cartels, smugglers and human traffickers are profiting off immigrants and helping them take advantage of our broken asylum laws," Graham said at the time. "I will no longer allow the loopholes in our laws to be exploited. I will not aid and abet these horrific practices. My bill fixes these problems."
Catch and Release' Resumes on Texas Border in the Face of Rising Migrant Numbers
'They're filling bus after bus.'
AUSTIN, Texas — Hundreds of Haitian migrants who are crossing the Rio Grande border in the normally staid Del Rio sector of Texas are enjoying the first return to "catch-and-release" policies since President Donald Trump's administration all but eliminated them. U.S. Border Patrol and ICE are allowing hundreds of Haitians and other migrant nationalities who cross in the Del Rio region to avoid detention or quick return to Mexico; instead they are given Notices to Appear in immigration court at some point in the future and allowed to board Greyhound buses for other parts of the United States, according to federal sources and the head of a migrant-assistance agency helping the migrants.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials in the region wouldn't confirm or deny that migrants are benefitting from catch-and-release again. Catch-and-release was a practice, in response to an overwhelming number of migrants causing the breakdown of normal border control systems, that rewarded illegal crossers who claimed to fear returning to their home countries with long-term presence inside the United States for nearly one million Central Americans in 2019.
It's unclear how many migrants have benefitted from the reintroduction of catch-and-release in the Del Rio sector.
But Shon Young, director of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition in Del Rio, to which Border Patrol has been delivering migrants for help with travel arrangements, said his organization began receiving mostly Haitian and Cuban migrants since the day after Biden's inauguration.
"For some reason, the day after the inauguration, we had a big influx of people coming. So we fired up the coalition at full speed," he said. Border Patrol began bringing increasing numbers of migrants a day to the coalition for about two months, and the numbers have trended upward to some 60 a day the last two weeks and then to more than 100 this past Sunday. Untold numbers of other migrants are winning catch-and-release downriver in the Eagle Pass area.
Most of the migrants get their immigration court paperwork and head for other parts of the country aboard Greyhound buses but, Young said, many have the money to fly out.
The Trump administration used Mexico push-back policies to sharply curtail such releases during the latter half of 2019 to control the migrant crisis at that time. Catch-and-release ended altogether in March when the Trump administration empowered the Border Patrol to quickly return many apprehended illegal migrants without process, a Covid-management policy known colloquially as Title 42, after the public-health section of the U.S. Code. The Biden administration has not formally rescinded the Title 42 expulsion order.
CIS could not independently confirm the extent to which catch-and-release, which powerfully motivates migrants to illegally enter for the chance to stay indefinitely inside the United States, is now reintroduced, or why.
But one Border Patrol agent in the area told CIS that the migrants are now too numerous for local systems to process, just like the catch-and-release circumstances that powered the 2019 crisis.
"We are releasing hundreds from many different countries of origin because we simply don't have enough room to hold them all," the Border Patrol agent told the Center for Immigration Studies. "They are being released under what is called an O.R. which means 'Own Recognizance' – basically, a promise to arrive for their immigration hearing at some future date. We can't hold them because they are crossing all day long in groups of 20 to 40, men, women, children."
Said one federal official in the area: "They're filling bus after bus after bus." No U.S. media has yet covered this incentivizing shift in practice as the number of migrants trying their luck at winning catch-and-release spikes ever upward. But Mexican media in the State of Coahuila across from Del Rio and Eagle Pass have reported that increasing numbers of migrants are heading toward the American border and that human smuggling activity is much higher than in previous years.
There's some indication in Mexican media that federal police and the national guard have moved to shut down the flow over the border, although the reason why the Mexican government would do that remains unclear currently.
CBP's refusal to confirm, deny, or explain the resumption of catch-and-release apparently has worked to keep the practice out of media limelight for weeks even as it motivated ever-higher numbers of migrants to cross the Rio Grande in this region.
Local journalist Karen Gleason, who covered the 2019 catch-and-release migrant crisis, told CIS she's been trying for a week to get Border Patrol officials to answer her questions, to no avail despite repeatedly efforts to make contact.
"I have yet to hear back from them," she said. "It's complete radio silence, which is funny because back in 2019 they were very eager to talk to anyone who would listen about what they are doing."
One topic that Mexico’s federal government has not officially covered or discussed is the perception of a lax immigration approach by the U.S. government under President Joe Biden. The current president’s policies represent a stark contrast from those of former President Donald Trump.
NY Times: Border Crossers Staying in Hotels Before Release into U.S.
Border crossers arriving at the United States-Mexico border are being put up in high-rise hotels in southern California to quarantine before being released into the interior of the U.S., the New York Times reports.
As President Joe Biden’s administration has restarted Catch and Release — whereby border crossers are freed into the U.S. interior while awaiting their asylum and immigration hearings — many are being put up in hotels to quarantine until they are released.
In Texas, border crossers do not have to quarantine before being released into the U.S.
The Times reports:
To guard against the coronavirus, health authorities in San Diego have arranged housing for hundreds of arriving migrants in a downtown high-rise hotel, where they are being quarantined before being allowed to join family or friends in the interior of the United States. [Emphasis added]
…
Health authorities in San Diego have ruled that those crossing into California must remain at the hotel for 10 days before being allowed to go onward. There is no similar quarantine requirement in Texas for migrants who arrive with no coronavirus symptoms, according to volunteers working with the migrants; there, they said, those released by Border Patrol are being allowed to board buses and travel to other destinations. [Emphasis added]
…
In San Diego, more hotels were being lined up to take in migrants, said Ms. Clark of Jewish Family Service. “We are going to need federal resources,” she said. [Emphasis added]
The Times report reveals some of the first totals of the rate at which border crossers are being released into the U.S. despite the ongoing Chinese coronavirus crisis. The uptick in border crossers, the Times admits, is due to “expectations of a friendlier reception” spurred by the Biden administration’s talk of amnesty for illegal aliens, a halt to deportations, and a crippling of interior immigration enforcement.
For instance, the Times reports that more than 1,000 border crossers have been released into the U.S. interior “in recent days,” while migrant camps across the border in Mexico have “boomed to 1,000 people over the past few weeks.”
Activists said that at least 1,000 border crossers have been released into the U.S. “in recent days” in Texas and hundreds more have been released in southern California.
According to Catch and Release totals from one advocacy group, more than 200 border crossers have been released to them in southern California in the first week of February. For context, only 54 border crossers were released to the group in the entire month of December and just 140 in January.
In Texas, 47 migrant families were released near Kingsville, Texas, recently.
The increase in Catch and Release has meant a shift in the kinds of migration the U.S. is experiencing as well. Previously, federal immigration officials had made clear that lacking health care is not a legal claim for asylum.
The Biden administration is using parole programs to release border crossers who are in poor health into the U.S. so they can take advantage of public resources and medical services meant for legal immigrants and American citizens.
One case detailed by the Times noted that a Honduran national in poor health had fled Honduras with her family more than a year ago but was not admitted to the U.S. until a week ago thanks to a loose border policy by the Biden administration.
As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration has been releasing border crossers into the U.S. without testing them for coronavirus. Nearly 400 border crossers in McAllen, Texas, were released in recent weeks and given parole to stay in the U.S.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com.
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