Posted on November 21, 2020

Illegal Border Crossings Are Surging as Migrants Anticipate Biden Changes, DHS Says

Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, November 19, 2020

Border Patrol agents are already seeing a Biden surge in illegal immigration at the southwest border, officials said Thursday, with the numbers surging 21% over the last month alone.

Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said worsening economic conditions south of the border, but so are “perceived and or anticipated shifts in policies” here in the U.S.

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Border Patrol agents and CBP officers snared about 69,000 unauthorized border crossers in October, up from about 58,000 in September.

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Hard drug seizures are also up significantly.

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Homeland Security officials had been warning for months that they expected a rise in illegal border crossing as talk of more lenient deportation policies took hold here in the U.S.

Presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden has said he would halt deportations and suspend many of the border policies that helped end last year’s migrant surge.

“Make no mistake, that is going to sound the alarm that our borders are open,” Mr. Morgan said. “You will see a crisis that makes last year’s crisis look like child’s play. And you can take that to the bank.”

One of those policies is the Migrant Protection Protocols, better known as “remain in Mexico,” which allowed CBP to return many illegal immigrants back to Mexico to wait for their immigration hearings. Mr. Morgan said that denied them a foothold, and cut the incentive for them to come in the first place.

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Mr. Morgan said halting border wall construction, as Mr. Biden has vowed, will also hamper CBP’s ability to stop future waves of illegal migration.

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