Biden Admin Waives More Migrants Through Southern Border Than Promised
An average of 1,473 migrants were released into U.S. per day during July
The Biden administration is ignoring its own limits on asylum seekers, allowing more to enter the United States than it said it would, internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
Customs and Border Protection waived through 45,662 migrants with the CBP One mobile application in the month of July, an average of 1,473 a day. Customs and Border Protection dramatically expanded the app’s parameters in May after the end of the public health measure Title 42—which gave immigration authorities power to promptly deport migrants—but limited the amount of daily appointments to 1,000 a day. The number of daily appointments was later expanded to 1,250 and then 1,450 at the end of June. But the data from the Department of Homeland Security show immigration officials are not honoring that limit either.
The figures raise serious questions about President Joe Biden's proposals to fix the border crisis, which is the worst in the nation's history. The United States saw more than 2.76 million illegal border crossings in the 2022 fiscal year alone, compared with the Trump administration's annual high of roughly 1.6 million. Although the average daily surplus in CBP One appointments is roughly 23 migrants, that translates to nearly 8,400 annually at a time when cities are struggling to house and feed a surge of new arrivals. New York City, for example, entered into a $275 million contract with hotels to shelter just 5,000 migrants and its mayor Eric Adams (D.) says its city has "no space" left.
Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.
The CBP One app allows migrants to apply for asylum remotely on their phone as a way to streamline the asylum process and bring order to the southern border. Republicans such as Rep. Clay Higgins (La.) have criticized CBP One as part of a "shell game" that merely reclassifies would-be illegal border crossers and releases them into the U.S. interior.
But Biden in January touted the CBP One app as part of a "new process" that "is orderly … safe … and humane. And it works." Those who are not approved on the app, Biden said, would be immediately deported.
"And let me say it again: The actions we’re announcing today will make things better—will make things better but will not fix the border problem completely," Biden said.
The news of the nearly 46,000 CBP One admissions comes as the southern border saw a 50 percent increase in illegal crossings in July compared with June, according to the Washington Post. Law enforcement arrested more than 130,000 illegal aliens along the Mexico border last month, the paper reported, a period that traditionally sees a dip in crossings given the extreme heat.
"The short term effects of the many legal pathways Biden has pushed to curb illegal immigration are failing," one senior Department of Homeland Security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Washington Free Beacon. "One can only wonder what changes are coming to bring more would-be illegal aliens in legally. The slippery slope ends at open borders."
The Biden administration initially took a victory lap after a brief decrease in southern border crossings at the end of Title 42, crediting its CBP One app. In a statement to the Washington Post, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection blamed the subsequent increase in illegal border crossings on "disinformation" from smugglers who are continuing to lure migrants across the border with the promise that they will not be deported.
Both Republican-led states and immigration activists have filed lawsuits against the Biden administration’s recent immigration policies. Those lawsuits could spell doom for the CBP One app. Republicans allege it is an illegal power grab, while liberal groups have said the penalties for migrants who are denied on the app are too harsh.
A federal judge in California struck down many of the regulations governing CBP One app in July. The Department of Justice said it would appeal the ruling.
California's Homelessness Policy Is a Disaster. Biden Wants to Replicate It.
Dem admin invests $3 billion into programs that pursue Golden State's failed 'Housing First' policies
California's homeless population has skyrocketed since the state adopted housing policies that critics say enable drug users and fail to treat the mentally ill. Now, the Biden administration is spending more than $3 billion to replicate those policies.
President Joe Biden's Department of Housing and Urban Development in July announced its investment in so-called Housing First programs, which subsidize rent costs for those living on the street but do not impose drug or mental health treatment requirements. California adopted those programs in 2016 and has since seen its homeless population steadily grow. Last year, for example, California was home to 30 percent of the nation's homeless people, despite Californians making up less than 12 percent of the U.S. population. From 2020 to 2022, California's homeless population increased by roughly 6 percent, a rate 15 times higher than the rest of the country.
Biden, during his 2020 campaign, presented himself as a run-of-the-mill Democrat who would restore "normalcy" to America. After taking office, however, Biden has in many cases mirrored California—perhaps the nation's most liberal state—on policy. After California banned the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, for example, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm credited the state for inspiring her to "move faster and further" toward a green energy transition. The Biden administration went on to introduce environmental proposals that effectively force automakers to sell electric cars over their gas-powered counterparts.
Housing First programs have failed the Golden State, experts told the Washington Free Beacon, because they exclude treatment requirements for issues that commonly plague the homeless, such as substance abuse and mental illness. As a result, homeless people who receive housing subsidies often continue using drugs and fail to become independent, Manhattan Institute senior fellow Stephen Eide argued.
"Other problems are left as sort of afterthoughts, and nothing much ends up being done about them at all," Eide told the Free Beacon. "In practice, actually, this looks a lot more like 'Housing Only' than 'Housing First.'"
The Department of Housing and Urban Development did not return a request for comment.
Californians have soured on Housing First since it formally became the state's strategy to combat homelessness in 2016, Eide said. After the strategy's adoption, the number of unsheltered homeless people in California grew, prompting Eide to call Housing First a "failed strategy."
"The communities that were most passionate about Housing First invested the most money into it—California most notably—and the results were not very impressive," he said.
American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Howard Husock echoed Eide, saying Housing First is "built on false premises."
"If you put people with substance abuse problems and mental health problems into their own four walls without necessarily providing treatment of some kind, including withdrawal from drug addiction, what's the case for this being the best approach?" he told the Free Beacon. "It's just self-evident."
Beyond its adoption of California's homelessness policies, the Biden administration has embraced so-called harm reduction, a public health theory that argues governments should minimize the hazards associated with drug use instead of eradicating it. Biden's Department of Health and Human Services has funneled tens of millions of dollars to harm reduction facilities to fund "smoking kits" and other materials meant to help addicts get high without overdosing. The White House earlier this year also made naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, available over the counter.
California has also worked to advance harm reduction, investing $61 billion in such programs in July. Months earlier, in April, liberal California lawmakers blocked bills to strengthen punishments for fentanyl dealers, arguing that the state should pursue harm reduction instead.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams Considers Opening Migrant Camp in Central Park
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is considering a plan that would house thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens in a migrant camp in Manhattan’s iconic Central Park.
Since the spring of last year, more than 95,000 border crossers and illegal aliens have arrived in New York City — costing local taxpayers at least $8 million every day. Just as rents have skyrocketed, migrants are sleeping on the streets as Adams has said “there is no more room.”
Now, Adams’ office has suggested that Central Park is among more than 3,000 locations where city officials are considering setting up camps and tent cities for migrants to live.
Other potential migrant camp locations include Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Randall’s Island, where children’s soccer fields may soon be shuttered so the city can house thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens in the area.
Adams is also set to start moving migrants into a recreation center in Brooklyn’s McCarren Park which sits in between the deeply liberal neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
Meanwhile, Adams has started handing out fliers, available in English and Spanish, to border crossers and illegal aliens not yet in New York City, asking them not to travel to the sanctuary jurisdiction, citing the high cost of living, the lack of housing, and the strained public resources.
Flier via NYC.gov
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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