More than 85 percent of migrants arriving at the United States-Mexico border are released into the U.S. interior, a report from the House Homeland Security Committee details. At the same time, the report accuses President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of seeking to slash federal detention space.
The report — which breaks down how Biden and Harris have welcomed nearly eight million migrants to the U.S. since early 2021 — suggests that while Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has mass released migrants into American communities, the agency has simultaneously cut detention space.
Chart via House Homeland Security Committee
“It is important to note that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) mandates any inadmissible alien who enters the United States be detained — from the moment they are encountered until they are removed or found to have a lawful basis to remain in the country,” the report states:
Instead of taking steps to meaningfully comply with this mandate, as previous administrations have, Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas devised and implemented a comprehensive and unlawful agenda of mass “catch and release,” which has led to the release of millions of inadmissible aliens into American communities. [Emphasis added]
In particular, the report finds that just 36 percent of migrants in Fiscal Year 2021 were detained by DHS for at least some period of time while their cases were adjudicated. Compare this to Fiscal Year 2013, under former President Barack Obama, when 91 percent of migrants were detained for at least some period of time during their case adjudications.
In a Sept. 2023 interview with the committee, Yuma Sector Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Dustin Caudle said that since January 2021, some 65 to 70 percent of migrants encountered in the region had been released into American communities rather than being detained.
Earlier this year, Mayorkas admitted that more than 85 percent of migrants arriving at the border are being released into the U.S. interior.
Former San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke told the committee in May 2023 that high-ranking DHS officials regularly pressured border sectors to “do our best to keep [the number of illegal aliens in detention] down.”
Chart via National Immigration Center for Enforcement
Amid mass migrant releases, the report accuses Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas of continuously attempting to cut Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention space “while also failing to use all the beds made available by Congress.”
The report states:
After requesting fewer beds and refusing to fill them, the Biden-Harris administration was even preparing to roll out a plan in July 2024 “to eliminate in-person check-ins for migrants and replace them with an app,” further reducing ICE’s ability to enforce immigration law. [Emphasis added]
By June 2024, DHS data showed that, based on an independent think tank’s estimate of 16.8 million illegal aliens present in the United States, less than two percent were under any sort of ICE supervision, with only .25 percent being detained. Such nonsensical, anti-enforcement policies likely explain why Wetherell wrote in his opinion that the Biden-Harris administration is effectively “like a child who kills his parents and then seeks pity for being an orphan.” [Emphasis added]
Big Bend Sector Chief Patrol Agent Sean McGoffin told the committee in April 2023 that “everyone” arriving at the border “should be detained” because detention is “absolutely” critical to immigration enforcement.
As the report states, DHS’s own data shows that 82 percent of migrants who are not continuously detained remain living in the U.S. years later and those migrants who are not deported within the first 12 months of their arrival “are rarely” deported, if ever.
Meanwhile, when migrants are detained, they are deported 97 percent of the time.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
