Federal officials are gearing up for a second attempt to fast-track asylum screenings for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump-era expedited asylum screenings were terminated by President Joe Biden shortly after he assumed office. But Biden will soon unveil his own plan for accelerated screenings, per AP News.
As previously covered by The Dallas Express, the federal COVID-19 public health emergency is scheduled to expire on May 11, along with accompanying asylum restrictions.
Consequently, officials are expecting this to cause an increase in migrants attempting to enter the U.S. through the southern border.
Migrants who pass initial asylum screenings are typically released into the country with the expectation that their case will move forward in immigration court.
However, the “vast majority” of migrants fail to show up for their scheduled court date, according to some government officials. Yet a 2021 report from the American Immigration Council indicates that over 80% do appear in court.
In order to qualify for asylum, migrants must “provide evidence demonstrating either that they have suffered persecution … [or] have a ‘well-founded fear’ of future persecution in their home country,” per the AIC.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that under President Biden’s expedited program, individuals who fail to qualify for asylum will be deported “in a matter of days or just a few weeks,” per AP News.
Mayorkas clarified that only single adults will go through the fast-tracked screening process.
Ken Oliver, senior director of engagement and Right on Immigration for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The Dallas Express that “in principle, asylum screenings are really important.”
Nevertheless, Oliver argued that the execution of these screenings under the Biden administration is flawed.
“There are so many loopholes that the Biden administration creates,” he said. “The smuggling organizations are very quick in coaching migrants to exploit these loopholes … [by] using certain code words.”
Oliver asserted that migrants will use “certain code words” to manipulate the system by citing health problems, mental illness, and claims of anti-LGBTQ+ persecution to be granted asylum status.
He added that Mayorkas has made “no indication” that his department will “be moving the amount of deportations in tandem with the amount of increased entries between the ports of entry.”
The immigration crisis is “compounded” by the “hundreds of thousands of gotaways,” according to Oliver.
“Gotaways” are unlawful migrants who have evaded border patrol agents between ports of entry.
There were over 600,000 “gotaways” reported by border security in 2022 alone.
“Border patrol is so busy processing families and individuals as they come over in huge groups that [it] leaves tremendous gaps in the border line that are not being patrolled and people are just getting in,” Oliver told The Dallas Express. “These are the gotaways, and they’re likely to continue.”
The overwhelming volume of unlawful migration to Texas has caused Governor Greg Abbott to send migrants to other parts of the country that identify as sanctuary states or cities, such as California and Chicago.
As reported by The Dallas Express, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is now pleading with Abbott to halt this practice, claiming her city cannot receive migrants in a “safe, orderly, and dignified way.”
