The Biden administration’s proposed “Safe Third Country” agreement attempting to crack down on an expected surge in illegal immigration at the southern border has a major loophole that still allows migrants to be released into the country en masse, according to a document the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) sent to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively obtained.
The policy, which was proposed in anticipation of the end of the Title 42 public health expulsion order on May 11, would make migrants seeking asylum that already passed through a safe country on the way to the U.S. ineligible for asylum. The Border Patrol union raised its concerns to DHS, asserting that the rule would still allow for “catch and release” because of loopholes, such as making a claim of credible fear to trigger the need for years-long adjudication, according to the NBPC response.
“But importantly, the proposed rule is silent and makes no changes to the current process that allows noncitizens seeking review by an immigration judge to be released during the adjudicative process. There is nothing in the proposed rule that changes the current Catch and Release process and, as a matter of business necessity, the cartels operating to smuggle people into the United States will educate its ‘asylum’ clients to the proposed rule’s changes so they can – as before – be assured of gaining entry and work authorization in the United States,” the NBPC said in their response to DHS.
The Biden administration introduced the proposed rule on Feb. 23 amid a surge in illegal immigration at the southern borderMore than 2.3 million migrant encounters at the southern border were recorded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in fiscal year 2022 and more than one million were already recorded in the first five months of fiscal year 2023.
The asylum system is backlogged, with a record of roughly 1.6 million cases, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which analyzes and compiles government data. Those seeking asylum wait an average of 4.3 years nationwide for a judge to hear their claims.
