A change made to US immigration policy by the Biden administration led to a "predictable" rise in the number of "family units" attempting to cross into the US border.
Based on a new report of preliminary Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) data, August was the highest month this year for overall migrant encounters - hitting 91,000. Policy experts say that was 'entirely predictable' due to a rule change which exempted 'family units' from being automatically denied asylum.
"Notwithstanding the administration’s claim that they are refusing to consider asylum claims from people encountered between ports of entry, the rule they adopted has huge loopholes. Among those explicitly exempted are family units," said Ira Mehlman, a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in a Friday statement to Just the News.
"So, guess what? We are seeing a surge in family units crossing the border illegally and it is not even clear if they really are family units. As we have seen in the past, there have been rent-a-kid schemes to help people take advantage of the laxer rules that apply to adults accompanied by children. The record number of family units encountered at the border was entirely predictable," he added.
Since May, immigrants seeking asylum at the U.S. border have been able to request appointments, up to 1,450 per day, CPB says, with immigration officials using the CBP One smartphone application.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Just the News that the immigrants who use the CBP One app to schedule appointments still have to make it to the border somehow. -Just the News
"They still have to pay smugglers to get here and the whole thing is a boon for alien smugglers," said Krikorian. "It's supposed to only be for people who have made it to Mexico already and even that's bad enough, because you have to pay a smuggler to get there but the smugglers have figured it out. They're actually using it."
Krikorian also says that the increase in family units was predictable due to current DHS policy.
"I don't know what the administration thought was going to happen," he continued.
Hilariously, the White House is now claiming that President Joe Biden has "done more" to secure the border "than anybody else."
KJP: Joe Biden “has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has” 🤣
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 31, 2023
pic.twitter.com/iXuimrV5vm
Secure it for who, exactly?
According to the CBP, a family is defined as "group of two or more aliens consisting of a minor or minors accompanied by his/her/their adult parent(s) or legal guardian(s)."
Last Thursday, the Washington Post reported that the number of family units seeking entry into the US hit a record high in August.
The Post reports that the US Border Patrol "arrested at least 91,000 immigrants who crossed as part of a family group in August, exceeding the prior one-month record of 84,486 set in May 2019."
And how many didn't they arrest?
