New data has revealed the Biden-Harris administration's Family Expedited Removal Program is actually allowing nearly 90% of the migrants to stay instead of deporting them.
The program, introduced in May 2023, was promoted to enforce "consequences for unlawful entry into the U.S." Since May 2023, out of 24,000 migrants placed in the program, over 22,000 were allowed to remain in the U.S., with only about 2,600 being deported, the New York Post reported.
Furthermore, over 3,600 migrants have disappeared from the program and are believed to be missing within the U.S., based on internal reports.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said, "These numbers are further proof that the Biden-Harris administration's policies have nothing to do with actually securing the border or enforcing the law, but instead masking its utter refusal to do either of those things," the New York Post reported.
Green added, "Such a dismal rate of removals makes clear that President Biden, 'border czar' Kamala Harris, and now-impeached DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are committed to ignoring U.S. immigration law while attempting to hide that fact from the American people. Ultimately, these individuals have a simple responsibility — detain and remove those who have no lawful basis to remain."
The vision was that migrant families, especially those with children, were difficult to deport, but the Family Expedited Removal Program aimed to keep families together while officials processed them for quick removal. As part of the program, an ankle monitor was placed on an adult family member.
However, the program had several flaws. It allowed those scheduled for removal to undergo a screening to determine if they had a valid reason to fear returning to their home country.
Migrants can present their fear of returning home to an immigration judge if their claims were denied.
The Biden administration launched the program to handle an expected increase in illegal crossings at the southern border after the end of Title 42, a COVID-era expulsion policy from the Trump administration, which ended the day after the program was announced.
Since the program started in May 2023, border agents have recorded over 800,000 encounters with migrant families illegally crossing the southern border, according to federal data.
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