Written by Hudson Crozier
What’s happening: More than 10 million people have tried to enter the U.S. illegally under President Joe Biden — almost 13 times the population of North Dakota. The number is already far greater than that of any presidency.
- How many got in? More than 4 million illegal immigrants have been released into the U.S. or evaded capture, the House Judiciary Committee reported this month. Almost 99 percent of those released have not been deported.
Who are they? In recent years, those attempting to migrate illegally have largely been a mix of job seekers, refugees, unaccompanied children who are often trafficking victims, people with criminal histories or ties to terrorism, and more than 1.7 million “gotaways” who have slipped past law enforcement.
- The asylum seeker myth: Biden’s “asylum” programs are not what they seem, according to the House’s report. As of March, the Biden administration had only screened 6 percent of so-called asylum seekers for a “fear of persecution” from their home country.
What’s Biden doing about this? Biden’s administration has made minor attempts to increase deportations but still maintains the most permissive border policies in U.S. history. Meanwhile, it manipulates statistics to downplay border encounters and aggressively interferes with state officials’ attempts to address the crisis.
What’s the GOP doing? House Republicans have been trying to impeach Biden’s homeland security secretary for months over his border response. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has promised to lead the charge on border security legislation, which he has supported throughout his time in Congress.