Record 12,600 migrants encountered at border in 24 hours — as backlog for immigration hearings breaks 3 million
America’s border crisis is worsening with a record 12,600 migrants encountered by Customs and Border Protection officers in 24 hours Monday, according to Fox News.
Pictures showed a sea of thousands of newly arrived migrants huddled in neat lines as they awaited processing after illegally crossing into Eagle Pass, Texas.
Many had walked across the Rio Grande river which serves as the border between the US and Mexico with plans to seek asylum.
Numbers have reached the highest ever recorded since the end of Title 42 measures in May. August saw more than 304,000 migrants attempt to gain entry to the US, September increased to 341,000 and October logged 310,000.
Border resources are stretched so thin, road and rail crossings have been closed so all available officers can be diverted to processing the arriving migrants.
The Biden administration’s plan to control the flow was for migrants to wait in another country until they could get an appointment via the CBP One app, with up to 30,000 people per month allowed into the US to pursue asylum applications.
“Do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there,” President Biden said in January.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas also claimed a month later: “People who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum.”
In practice that has not been the case and 78% of all those encountered at the Southwest border in October — 188,778 people — crossed into the country illegally between points of entry.
Most aren’t being ejected, with the Department of Homeland security revealing between May and September they had removed or returned “over 300,000 individuals,” which equates to around 60,000 people per month — less than 30% of those who had arrived on US soil during that time.
Those now arriving at the border are not just those who claim to be fleeing persecution and failing regimes in South America. CBP figures show increases in those arriving from China, India, Russia and Africa.
One migrant from Morocco, Oussama, 20, recently told various media outlets how he had given up being an online gamer in his home country and tried his luck at the southern border in search of work and a better paying job, telling reporters: “I love you Joe Biden, thank you for everything Joe Biden,” once in the US.
He was processed and allowed into the country, then photographed in New York City days later where he said he was looking for work.
While authorities can’t stem the flow of people arriving – increasing every year of the Biden presidency, with CBP recording 1.9m border encounters in fiscal year 2021, 2.8m in 2022 and 3.2m in 2023 – the immigration court system isn’t in a position to effectively handle them either.
As of November, the US Immigration court reached a historic backlog of over three million pending cases, according to Transactional Records Access Clearing House (TRAC).
That number has grown by over a million cases in a single year, after reaching the milestone of two million cases for the first time in 2022.
The current backlog equates to around 4,500 cases for every immigration judge in the court system, according to TRAC.
That volume of cases is pushing hearings back by many months, meaning when migrants first enter the country they are given initial court dates years in advance.
In the meantime, the three million people awaiting their hearings are free to stay and, after six months, legally work until they come before a judge. This is precisely what is drawing so many people to the southern border, according to some experts.
“The backlog has become the pull factor,” senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, Muzaffar Chishti, told The Post. “Pull factors are always more important than push factors.”
“Migrants are smart. They know what kind of reception there going to be to the US. And social media has made it much more potent.”
Until the asylum system is overhauled and the backlog is reduced the border problem will not be resolved, Chisti explained.
“If they see that not everyone who is applying for asylum is getting asylum, and then people are not staying for seven years, and there’s a possibility removal at the end, I think the pattern will change,” he said. “That message has to be sent.”
Politicians from both the left and the right have repeatedly expressed outrage President Biden hasn’t taken more aggressive action to address the crisis.
“The crisis at the border is unacceptable. We need the federal government to step up, do its job, and bring security and stability to the border,” said Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D.)
Earlier this month, Hobbs wrote a letter to Biden requesting support from the National Guard to reopen the Lukeville Border, which has been closed since December 4 to deal with the migrant surge.
That support was not given, so Hobbs issued orders herself deploying Arizona National Guard troops to support CBP agents along the Arizona border.
The border crossing at Lukeville remains closed, however, as Hobbs does not have the authority to order it to be opened.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott (R.) signed a bill into effect Monday giving police officers in the state power to arrest anybody caught entering the country illegally.
“President Biden’s deliberate inaction at the border left Texas to fend for itself,” he said of the action.
People arrested under the law will be allowed to choose whether to leave the country under a judge’s orders, or face prosecution, jail time, and fines up to $2,000. Repeat offenders will face felony charges.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D.) — who has been trying for months to get federal aid for the tens of thousands of migrants who have overwhelmed the Big Apple’s shelter system — on Tuesday called on New Yorkers to head to Washington en masse to demand funding.
“The source of our discontent lies in Washington DC,” Adams told reporters. “We need to mobilize and rally a go to DC and say to the national government this is not fair what is happening to New York City.
Adams has gone to Washington himself 10 times to ask the Biden administration for aid in the migrant crisis, which has seen over 150,000 people pass through NYC since the start of the crisis with a price tag expected to reach $12 billion. The federal government has allocated only about $150 million in to the city.
After his most recent trip to the capital earlier in December, Adams said “I did not leave with optimism.”
“I left with the cold reality that help is not on the way in the immediate future,” the mayor said.
