By the Numbers: Biden Administration’s Border Crisis Spreading in the Interior
As the record-setting deluge of illegal aliens continues to swamp our borders, enforcement of U.S. immigration laws has all but collapsed under the Biden administration.
According to a new congressional report, at least 3.3 million migrants have been released into the country since Joe Biden took office. Of the nearly 6 million illegal alien encounters at the southern border from Jan. 20, 2021, to Sept. 30, 2023, at least 3,095,577 illegal aliens had no confirmed departure
from the United States. The “at least” qualifiers are important as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials admit that recent release rates are even higher, averaging 5,000 per day. Additionally, the report’s 3.3 million figure does not include the more than 1.7 million known “gotaways” who have eluded Border Patrol under the Biden administration.
Breaking down the dismal data:
- Of 5.6 million encounters from Jan. 20, 2021, through Aug. 31, 2023, only 6.8 percent of migrants (379,951) were even screened for asylum eligibility, such as credible fear.
- As of Aug. 31, 2023, DHS removed just 2 percent of illegal aliens who did not show up to their immigration court hearings after establishing credible fear of persecution at the border.
- As of Dec. 10, 2023, 1,323,264 illegal aliens with final orders of removal still remained in the U.S.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 report, a mere 2,540 of the 72,678 non-criminals removed in FY23 were from the interior of the country. To be fair, this isn’t entirely due to lax efforts by ICE; hundreds of uncooperative sanctuary jurisdictions thwart ICE operations every day. These lawless sanctuaries are, of course, emboldened by the administration’s own inaction under DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
While arrests increased from 2022 to 2023, the number of criminal aliens arrested by ICE is still far below what it was in 2018. In FY2018, more than 138,000 aliens with pending charges or convictions were arrested by ICE. In FY2023, fewer than 74,000 aliens with pending charges or convictions were arrested.
Last week, 14 House Democrats signed onto a Republican resolution formally rebuking Biden’s border and immigration policies. The resolution is largely symbolic, but reflects softening support for the administration’s open-borders agenda.
In California, a Democratic bastion, registered voters now tell pollsters that U.S. borders are not secure by a margin of 62 percent to 30 percent. That sentiment is even stronger among likely voters.
The House committee report concluded, “With such a large and seemingly unending influx of illegal aliens into the United States, Americans would be right to conclude that the border crisis is not a side effect, but instead a goal of the Biden administration’s radical open-borders immigration policies.”
