Migrants give a thumbs up and cheer as they load a bus to take them to a refugee center outside Union Station in Chicago, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022. Chicago officials say 75 immigrants have arrived in the city on buses …may be complaining the loudest about the influx of illegal immigrants, but government data shows the migrants from the Biden border surge are reaching every corner of the country and straining communities’ ability to accommodate them.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “paroled” the migrants into the country in anticipation of the expiration of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency and the end of the Title 42 border policy. The migrants were released despite a court order blocking parole. A federal judge has demanded that the government report on the migrants’ whereabouts and compliance with their parole terms.
“Enforcement actions are determined on a case-by-case basis and may include, but are not limited to, arrest, increased monitoring through the Alternatives to Detention program and/or confinement in a detention facility,” Daniel A. Bible, ICE’s deputy associate director, told the judge. Since President Biden took office, roughly 6 million unauthorized migrants have attempted to enter the U.S. Some were turned back, but analysts said at least 2 million were caught and released and nearly 2 million others eluded capture.
“This gives a lie to everything the White House and Secretary Mayorkas have said about the consequences that will be imposed on individuals who enter the United States illegally,” he said. “This undermines the administration’s contentions that the border is not open. It plainly is.”