As border states have known for years and even deep-blue cities are starting to realize, the Biden administration has ushered in an unsustainable wave of undocumented migrants with an agenda that refuses to adequately enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
While the number of migrants who simply cross the porous southern border is troubling enough, a program rolled out by Biden’s Customs and Border Protection has essentially rolled out the red carpet for hundreds of thousands of individuals who were not interested in making the arduous trek through Central America and Mexico.
Known as CBP One, the app allows prospective migrants to register with federal authorities and receive approval with a minimal background check. Upon arrival, the vast majority of these individuals — as with all undocumented migrants regardless of their method of illegal entry — are simply released into communities across the nation.
"ICE beds are sitting empty while they're releasing 70%, and the CBP One App…95% of the people who use that just get released into the country. It's clearly [Mayorkas'] intention to do this despite the fact that cartels have taken advantage." – Chairman @RepMarkGreen pic.twitter.com/nUiBKBbc25
— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) January 8, 2024
Between January and November 2023, CBP confirmed that “nearly 360,000 individuals have successfully scheduled appointments to present at a point of entry” by using the program, with “Haitian, Mexican, and Venezuelan” migrants topping the list.
Although the agency touts the app as a “key component” in its “efforts to incentivize noncitizens to use lawful, safe, humane, and orderly pathways and disincentivize attempts to cross between ports of entry,” critics of the program say it only makes it easier for potentially dangerous individuals to find an open door into the country.
Last year, the House Homeland Security Committee requested relevant information about the CBP One app but its deadline for a response passed without any response.
A letter signed by the committee’s chair, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), and Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Chair Clay Higgins (R-LA) asserted that the Department of Homeland Security “Failed to produce any substantive response” and its “lack of transparency is disconcerting and unacceptable.”
Green went on to express his concerns about the possible misuse of the CBP One app in a statement at the time.
“I have long warned that cartels could be empowered to use [Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas’ expanded and improper use of the CBP One app as yet another way to enhance their human smuggling operations,” he said. “Recent reporting indicates those predictions were entirely accurate.”
