The US-Canada border – the world’s longest – remains wide open to migrants seeking to enter the country illegally and seek asylum because it is not part of the Biden administration’s latest restrictions, sources told The New York Post.
Without the same restrictions as the southern border, a record 3,600 migrants entered illegally in June – more than recorded in all of 2022, according to leaked Homeland Security data obtained by The NY Post.
Even with Biden’s restrictions on asylum at the southern border, the administration allowed more than 100,000 migrants to enter in June, according to a recent analysis of Homeland Security data.
The policy is designed to deny asylum access to migrants who enter illegally until such crossings fall below an average of 1,500 per day. However, it offers many exceptions.
Meanwhile, the northern border in recent years has become a prime location for migrants trying to enter the US illegally because there are few barriers and fewer border agents in the area.
The surge in illegal border crossings between the US and Mexico has also drawn resources from the northern border, including agents who have been reassigned to help interview migrants caught in the south via videoconference.
Over the past three years, border agents have also been physically deployed south to temporarily help their counterparts process migrants.
The Swanton sector, which covers New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, has become the number one area on the northern border for illegal crossings, with migrants from 85 different countries arriving here since October.
Agents also saw thousands of migrants arriving from India and Latin America along the entire northern border between October and May.
Migrant drop at the Mexican border
The number of recorded illegal crossings of the US-Mexico border fell to a three-year low, CBS News reported, citing preliminary statistics from Customs and Border Protection.
US Border Patrol apprehended about 84,000 illegal migrants attempting to cross the southern border in June of this year. This figure is closely approaching the values of the first months of President Joe Biden’s term, when it was around 75,000 in 2021 due to Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies.
The pressure of illegal migrants across the Mexican border has consistently declined for the fourth month – a trend that began in March and came as a surprise to border officials.
A new presidential executive order that sets an upper limit on the number of arrests at the border, beyond which processing of asylum applications is temporarily halted except in special cases, has had a major impact on migration dynamics. Such a threshold was set at 2,500 people on an average day over a week. The possibility to reapply for asylum was opened when the flow of migrants fell to 1,500 arrests per day.
Migration as a hot topic of election promises
The issue of migration has become one of the central themes of the upcoming presidential election, which will be held on November 5 this year. In an attempt to grab the initiative from the Republicans, Biden among other things supported a compromise bill on border security measures developed by the efforts of both parties in the Senate. The initiative included $20.2 billion for border protection measures, including a major expansion of Border Patrol and Customs agents, but the legislation failed to pass a vote in the House.
Citing federal inaction, southern Republican states decided to take over border security. The centre of such efforts was Texas, whose governor Greg Abbott had earlier announced the launch of Operation Lone Star and sent units of the state’s National Guard to the southern border. The governors of several other Republican states, including Tennessee, Missouri and Florida, have also sent troops south.
