Court Filing Shows 46,000 Migrants Released Into US in January

A new court document filed in Texas v. Biden reveals that of the 153,941 people who attempted to enter the United States illegally at the southern border in January, nearly 30% were released into the country.

Of the approximately 75,000 migrants who were taken into custody, roughly 46,000 were released into the U.S. on parole or after being placed in immigration court proceedings.

Rather than return people to Mexico, federal law enforcement released tens of thousands of migrants into the U.S., despite a pandemic public health protocol requiring they be returned to Mexico and a mandate that noncitizens entering the U.S. at ports of entry be fully vaccinated, the Washington Examiner reported.

In addition, the number of migrants apprehended by authorities at the southern border last month was nearly double the number from January 2021, when President Joe Biden took office.

In 2019, The Washington Post reported that the majority of people stopped at the southern border used to be Mexican men seeking work in the United States. During the Trump administration, however, and continuing with the Biden administration, increasingly the migrants encountered have been families and unaccompanied minors from Central and South America.

The flood of migrants coming from countries other than Mexico stems from worsening conditions globally because of the COVID-19 pandemic and because of the administration's changes to immigration policy, CBS News reported.

Upon taking office, Biden proposed a 100-day freeze on deportations, halted border wall construction and pledged to restore U.S. asylum laws.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas outlined a four-part plan last spring to reduce the influx of migrants, which included addressing the reasons that people leave their home countries, revamping the asylum process, improving border security management and combating human trafficking.

Nearly four dozen House Republicans called for Mayorkas to resign Feb. 11, The Washington Times reported, accusing him of leaving the southern border "wide open" and making it difficult for border agents to do their jobs.

The lawmakers also referenced leaked audio from a meeting between Mayorkas and Arizona border agents wherein the secretary acknowledged that the administration's policies "are not particularly popular" with Customs and Border Protection employees.

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