I’ve recently analyzed two proposals in President Biden’s January 5 “New Border Enforcement Actions”: a parole program for Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Haitians, and Cubans that’s being challenged in federal court; and the scheduling of interviews via the CBP One app, which allows CBP to funnel would-be illegal migrants into the United States through the ports of entry. There are a lot of “unknown unknowns” in those programs, including whether and when aliens in the two programs are given work authorization, how long those who appear for such interviews can remain before being placed into removal proceedings, and whether those aliens count as Southwest border “encounters” in CBP’s monthly statistics. A few congressmen and federal judges may want to know answers to those questions.
Biden Administration Lauds Successes. Before I begin, however, I want to note that the administration is already taking a victory lap over how well its new border regime is working.
On January 25, for example, the DHS press shop put out a release captioned “Unlawful Southwest Border Crossings Plummet Under New Border Enforcement Measures”. It states:
Preliminary numbers from January show that encounters of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans crossing unlawfully between ports of entry at the southwest border declined 97% compared to December. Encounters with individuals from these countries dropped from a 7-day average of 3,367 per day on December 11, to a seven-day average of just 115 on January 24. The decline in encounters from those populations occurred even as encounters of other noncitizens are returning to customary levels after a typical seasonal decline over the holidays.