By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square contributor
Jan 23, 2023
(The Center Square) – U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested a record 38 people on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database during the first three months of fiscal 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
This is after agents apprehended a record 98 in all of fiscal 2022 and 15 in fiscal 2021.
By comparison, 14 were apprehended from fiscal years 2017-2020 under the Trump administration.
Tom Homan, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told The Center Square, “Since [President Joe] Biden has taken office we are at approximately 140 KST [known or suspected terrorists] trying to enter the country illegally. Border Patrol has arrested people from 161 different countries [some of which] are sponsors of terrorism.
“With 1.2 million KNOWN got aways plus an untold number of unknown got aways; how many KST have successfully entered this country through the southwest border?” he asked. He’s referring to at least 1.2 million gotaways in the past 23 months, those whose who’ve illegally entered the U.S. and intentionally evaded capture by law enforcement.
“To say none would be clear ignorance,” he added. “A lot of systems were put into place after 9-11 to prevent terrorists from getting a visa or a plane ticket to enter the US. This has successfully stopped thousands with derogatory information from entering this country. Why would a terrorist attempt to get a plane ticket or visa knowing he will be vetted?
“It is much easier to pay the cartels a little extra and simply cross the southwest border like the 1.2 million and escape apprehension because Border Patrol agents are so overwhelmed with this manmade Biden border crisis.”
Since Biden’s been in office, more than 5 million apprehensions and gotaways have been reported – the greatest number over a two-year time period in U.S. history. Over 3.3 million apprehensions and gotaways were reported in fiscal 2022 – the greatest number for a fiscal year in U.S. history. In December, over 300,000 apprehensions and gotaways were reported, the greatest number for any month in U.S. history.
Former Border Patrol agent and Terrell County, Texas, Sheriff Thad Cleveland told The Center Square he’s worried about those who haven’t been caught. He said the ones who have signify a bigger problem: “many more made it successfully into the United States. Not because our Border Patrol agents aren’t doing a good job – the work they do is amazing,” but because the president and his administration “don’t care about our borders.”
(The Center Square) – A group of Republican U.S. senators and House members want the Biden administration to explain what they called a reckless decision to expand immigration parole programs.
The letter sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday morning says the Biden administration continues to worsen the border crisis. The also called the decision to expand the programs radical.
“Since the day they took office, President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have purposefully and maliciously eroded our nation’s border security. They have presided over the worst border crisis we’ve seen in decades and more illegal immigration than any administration in recent history. Now, they aim to sidestep Congress and the law by granting parole to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, said.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, said Mayorkas testified immigrant parole is judged on a case-by-case basis, but the congressman said he has seen evidence to support that testimony.
“Instead, his department is abusing the parole authority to mass-release hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens into the country. The department’s latest announcement reveals that it will continue to proceed and even accelerate this abuse as parole grants will increase by 33% from just last month. It’s unclear where the department derives legal authority to parole groups of this size and how this policy change enhances border security. As usual, the department has some explaining to do and I’m grateful for Senator Vance’s partnership in this effort,” Biggs said.
Details Emerge on President Biden’s Illegal Parole Program
January 13, 2023
FAIR Take | January 2023
Last week, President Biden announced he will expand an illegal program to allow 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans per month to enter the United States without visas. In doing so, the Biden administration is escalating its plan to circumvent the normal processes for legal immigration —and even outright violate federal law—in order to implement its open-borders agenda.
In general, a foreign national who wants to permanently emigrate to the U.S. must get an immigrant visa—otherwise known as a green card. To get an immigrant visa, foreign nationals have to apply through one of the programs created by Congress and set forth in federal law. Indeed, the Naturalization Clause in the United States Constitution provides that Congress, not the executive branch, has the plenary authority over immigration.
Congress has created several core immigration programs. Broadly speaking, these are: (1) family-based immigration; (2) employment-based immigration; and (3) humanitarian-based immigration, which grants asylum or refugee status to individuals who can establish fear of persecution by their government or a government-like entity. The main difference between claiming refugee status and claiming asylum is physical location: aliens outside the U.S. who meet the criteria to establish fear of persecution may claim refugee status; aliens physically present in the U.S. who meet the same criteria may claim asylum.
These programs have intricate rules, including requirements for sponsorship, limitations on who may sponsor (e.g., employer, family member, citizen, legal permanent resident), commitments of financial support, and other mandates for health screening, criminal background, and national security checks In addition, employment-based programs typically require specific skill sets to be eligible, and humanitarian programs require (at a minimum) the applicant to establish credible fear of persecution.
Finally, most pathways for legal immigration have numerical caps, only allowing a certain number of immigrants in various categories and from various countries to enter the U.S. each year. These caps, designed to set immigration at a reasonable pace, also create long lines in certain countries where there are large numbers of applicants. As a result, applicants who follow the law often wait for years to have their chance to get a green card and emigrate to the U.S.
Last year, however, the Biden administration circumvented these rules and (illegally) created its own immigration program. It did this through an orchestrated, massive violation of the parole statute. To most Americans, parole is a term used in the criminal justice system, when a prison authorizes the early release of an offender subject to certain conditions. In the immigration context, however, it has a different meaning. Immigration parole – often called humanitarian parole, or simply parole – is a procedure, authorized by statute, which authorizes immigration officials to grant entry to aliens without visas on a temporary and a case-by-case basis. The parole statute provides that the government may only grant parole to an alien for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit.” (See INA 212(d)(5)(A))
Despite the requirement that parole be granted on a case-by-case basis, last fall the Biden administration created an unlawful parole program for Venezuelans. Under this program, U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, guest workers, other parolees, and even illegal aliens with deferred action may sponsor a Venezuelan national for participation. Sponsors may be individuals filing on their own or individuals filing on behalf of non-profit or community-based organizations. Sponsors must declare their willingness to provide financial support to the beneficiary during the length of parole in the U.S., and must undergo background and security checks.
Once a sponsor has filed the required paperwork and been approved, the sponsored Venezuelan and his/her immediate family members, regardless of where they live in the world, may apply to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for authorization to travel to an interior port of entry (i.e. an airport). The aliens must apply for travel authorization (advance parole) through the new “CBP One” mobile app and submit additional biographic information and a photo.
AFL President Stephen Miller Responds to Biden’s Radical New Mass Amnesty For Illegals, Threatens Legal Action
January 5, 2023
America First Legal President Stephen Miller released the following statement in response to President Biden’s brazen plan to grant mass amnesty to 30,000 new illegal aliens a month:
“Today, Joe Biden has announced to the world that he is going to further violate and desecrate the immigration laws and borders of the United States. His plan to provide mass amnesty to 30,000 illegal aliens a month — flying them or allowing them into the United States outside of established immigration programs — is as brazen an assault on the rule of law as one can fathom.
This is modeled after other unlawful programs like DACA — this time using parole instead of deferred action — but it is even more mind-numbingly outrageous as these illegals are essentially being granted amnesty before they even arrive in the United States. And, just like with DACA, an authority that exists only to grant limited relief to specific individuals on a solely case-by-case emergency basis has been turned into an illegal, unconstitutional, mass amnesty program.
Biden’s lawless executive edict also includes a promise of faster catch-and-release at the border (what they refer to as Title 8 processing) and faster admission of illegal aliens at our ports of entry. Lawlessness heaped upon lawlessness. America First Legal will pursue every available legal remedy to fight this colossal horror.”
