Two days after issuing an executive order it framed as a tough crackdown on illegal immigration, the Biden administration countermanded its own order by instructing U.S. border agents in southwestern California to release migrants from 94 of 100 countries in the Eastern Hemisphere into the United States, the Washington Examiner reported Friday.
Citing a Border Patrol document that leaked Thursday, the Examiner reported the new guidance to federal law enforcement in the San Diego region: "Please see updated Presidential Proclamation guidance below, this is effective immediately."
According to the new guidance, adults from only Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will be referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for speedy removal, according to the report. Everyone else gets into the U.S. to await their asylum process, same as before.
Illegal immigrants from Asia, Europe, and Africa are encountered daily in the San Diego region, according to the report, and are more difficult to repatriate.
Further, the new guidance contradicts what Biden administration officials told reporters on Tuesday outlining President Joe Biden's new restrictions on asylum seekers.
"Extra-hemispheric migrants have always been a challenge. They will be subject to these rules, provisions," a senior administration official said, according to the Examiner. "So we do think that the rules measures will allow us to impose an immediate and fast consequence to migrants no matter what country they're coming from."
That lasted until Thursday.
Not to be outdone, a Customs Border Protection official told the Examiner on Friday that agents in the San Diego region would "continue" to put migrants "of all nationalities" into expedited removal proceedings, contradicting the memo that the Examiner saw. Notably, the official told the Examiner that lack of funding is impacting Biden's original executive order.
The New York Post reported Thursday that tens of thousands of migrants could be exempt from Biden's new order if their home countries refuse to take them back. The Post, also citing a leaked memo, reported that "single adults and family units who are very hard to remove (such as countries which do not permit charter repatriation flights) ... may be considered for processing of Expedited Removal or placed into section 240 removal proceedings."
Section 240 means illegal immigrants who can't return home are released into the U.S., just as they were before Biden's order.
Former President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that it all adds up to a "public relations executive order."
"First of all, it's a nothing that he did and allowing massive numbers of people still to come in, and it's just misinformation, disinformation, and just another hit job," Trump told Newsmax.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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