Border Crisis: Migrant Surge Soared to Highest During Biden Presidency

On Friday, officials reported that an increase in Cuban and Nicaraguan entries at the US-Mexico border in December led to the largest number of unlawful border crossings observed during any month of Joe Biden's administration.

The exceptional surge occurred just before Vice President Biden suggested steps on January 5 to discourage Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans from entering the United States.

Migrant Surge Sets Highest Record

Customs and Border Protection said that US agents arrested 251,487 migrants at the Mexican border in December, up 7% from November's total of 234,896 and 40% from December 2021's total of 179,253.

In December, approximately 43,000 Cubans were detained, an increase of 23% from November and more than fivefold compared to last year. More than 35,000 Nicaraguans were stopped, up 3% from November and more than double from December 2021, as per NBC News.

More migrants from Ecuador and Peru were also stopped. El Paso, Texas, was the busiest of the Border Patrol's nine sectors along the Mexican border for the third consecutive month due to the inflow of Cuban and Nicaraguan migrants. In the weeks preceding Vice President Biden's first visit to the border on January 8, the city was overrun with migrants freed to pursue their immigration claims in the United States.

At the current rate, border arrests might reach their lowest level since February 2021, a month after Biden's inauguration as president. Uncertain is whether this trend will persist for the remainder of the month and beyond, according to VOA News.

Earlier this month, Biden, a Democrat who plans to run for re-election in 2024, strengthened COVID-19-related limits that let migrants captured at the U.S.-Mexico border be swiftly deported back to Mexico. Previously, Mexicans, some Central Americans, and Venezuelans were subject to the limitations known as Title 42. Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans were granted them once Mexico decided to acknowledge their nations.

Concurrently, the Biden administration announced a new humanitarian admission program for 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans monthly, provided they have US sponsors and enter the country by air.

A Biden administration official stated, "The method we have devised is safe, quick, and only costs the price of a commercial aircraft ticket." The option is apparent compared to the thousands of dollars traffickers charge refugees for a perilous voyage.

Several US officials stated that arrests at the border usually decrease from late December to early January due to the holidays, which likely contributed to the January decrease. Customs and Border Protection of the United States did not reply quickly to a request for comment.

In November, US Border Patrol authorities captured 206 000 migrants along the southwest border. After a rise in El Paso, Texas, arrivals in November, the December data, which are not yet available to the public, might be higher.

GOP Urges to Know if Biden Covers Up Border Crisis

Rep. James Comer requests that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) send over papers connected to President Biden's travel to Texas to determine whether they were complicit in "covering up" the dismal, overcrowded circumstances that frequently exist along the southern border.

Since Biden's inauguration, Republicans have urged him to visit the southern border and see for himself the tens of thousands of migrants parked along each side of the US-Mexico border and surrounding towns - foreign nationals who frequently endured a perilous journey and arrive in the United States with nothing but the clothes on their backs in search of a better life.

Biden spent three hours jumping between buildings that had been spruced up for his visit. This was Biden's first known tour of the border in his five decades as a public official. Nobody observed him meeting any migrants.

Unsatisfied Republicans criticized the visit as a "photo opportunity." Comer requested in a letter any documentation and correspondence about the clearance of homeless encampments between DHS, the Secret Service, the mayor of El Paso, or the state of Texas.

Last year's 2.3 million border apprehensions established a new high, and this year's border crossings don't appear to be slowing down: there were 561,000 apprehensions in the first two months of the fiscal year 2023.

During his tour, the president avoided the wretched tent camps scattered around El Paso that sparked headlines last month about migrants taking over the streets. Law enforcement teams apprehended illegal immigrants who had entered the nation throughout the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Volunteers assisting scores of refugees seeking sanctuary at the Sacred Heart Church told DailyMail.com, "They've cleaned everything up for him."

Officials assert that they are only implementing the regulations and that any coincidences are coincidental. However, a day before the president's visit, the environment could not be more like the turmoil of late December. Arrivals planned their flights to coincide with the anticipated termination of Title 42, a Trump-era limitation that ultimately received a stay of execution from the Supreme Court.

Then, hundreds of primarily Venezuelan refugees camped on the downtown streets surrounding the Greyhound Bus stop. The week before the president's arrival, border patrol personnel swept through the neighborhood and removed their bundles of clothing and personal things.

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