President Joe Biden’s administration has released at least 160,000 illegal immigrants into the United States since March, including more than 30,000 who were released with temporary legal status, making them eligible for work permits, U.S Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents reviewed by Fox News revealed on Wednesday.
According to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, Border Patrol documents showed that Biden’s administration has released more than 70,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. since August 6. Nearly 32,000 of those were released with temporary legal status, which allows them to work within the United States. Over 94,000 have also been released since March 20.
“The documents show that on a single day in Del Rio sector, (September 28th), 128 single adult illegal immigrants were released from Border Patrol custody *without* ATD (alternatives to detention), which include tracking mechanisms like ankle monitors. @FoxNews,” Melugin tweeted.
Melugin said that while the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the staggering statistics, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official did not dispute the numbers.
“We have not yet released our monthly operational update for September with final FY21 numbers. Statutory authorities for immigration detention, prosecution and removal are utilized to address irregular migration. Paroling individuals from Border Patrol custody on a case-by-case basis, and enrolling the heads of households of family units into ATD programs, as well as conditioning the parole on reporting to ICE to be placed in removal proceedings, provides mechanisms to require family units released from CBP custody to report to ICE within a specified time,” the CBP official told Melugin. “The majority of individuals placed in Title 8 removal proceedings report in for their required hearings. (81% from 2014-2020).”
Many GOP lawmakers and officials have blamed President Biden’s weak immigration enforcement on the record-breaking number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. this year, which has already topped 1.5 million since January. But Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asserts that “root causes” like poverty and crime are to blame for the spike.
“The downturn in economies, the attendant rise in violence, the downturn in economies made more acute by reason of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the suppression of any humanitarian relief over the past number of years, and the pent-up thirst for relief among many different populations,” Mayorkas told Yahoo News on Tuesday. “I think an accumulation of factors contributes to the rise in migration that we’ve seen.”
Included in the surge of illegal immigrants walking across the US-Mexico border are members of South America’s middle-class, who are paying for flights to the border before unlawfully walking into the United States.
