News/Commentary

‘Next generation of DACA’: Biden admin releases 257K unaccompanied migrant children into US

August 21, 2022 | | Print Article

More than a quarter of a million unaccompanied migrant children who managed to illegally cross the border with Mexico have been released into the United States since President Joe Biden took office, with thousands more arriving every week.

Let that sink in.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that, under Biden, 257,110 migrant children have been encountered at U.S. borders, “cueing the need” for a new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, more commonly known as DACA, according to the Washington Examiner.

While the Obama-era program protected the 800,000 immigrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally as children, the children arriving now are excluded, and, as the Examiner noted, “The number of children who have come to the U.S. alone during Biden’s tenure is far beyond anything seen before, including the migration surges of children during the Obama and Trump administrations.”

“Here’s the problem that this administration is not even realizing — they’re creating the next generation of DACA,” said former senior Border Patrol agent, Rudy Karisch. “We have not even figured out what we’re going to do with the previous generation, and they’re creating the next generation.”

Currently, children arriving at America’s border alone are apprehended by Border Patrol. Rather than send them back to their home countries, which is not allowed under U.S. law, they are quickly released across the nation into the hands of sponsors.

Though border and refugee agencies are having a hard time keeping up with the non-stop arrival of children right now, it will likely be years before the true impact of their overwhelming numbers is felt. When these children grow up, the Examiner explains, they will potentially face deportation.

After Congress failed for years to provide illegal immigrants with legal status, then-President Barack Obama enacted DACA in 2012 and then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano rolled it out — despite the fact that Congress is solely responsible for legally setting immigration levels.

Under the program, noncitizens who were then under the age of 31 and had entered America before 2007 and prior to their 16th birthday and before 2007 could request that they not be deported. Recipients were given documents that allowed them to legally work in the country. Every two years, recipients were required to apply for a renewal of the protections.

Upon entering office in 2017, President Trump aimed to end DACA. Negotiating with Congress in 2018, Trump was willing to trade $25 billion from Congress to fund the border wall and some immigrations restriction for a full U.S. citizenship pathway for nearly two million illegal immigrants, including all those who were DACA recipients.

The deal died.

Meanwhile, nine states, including Texas, filed lawsuits in 2018 questioning the legitimacy of DACA. And when Trump tried to end the program, proponents of DACA sued the government, arguing that Trump had failed to properly justify its termination. In 2020, the Supreme Court sided with the immigration activists.

In 2021, a Texas federal court declared DACA was created illegally, but current recipients were allowed to continue to renew their permits, and last December, DACA was reimplemented by Biden.

“The DACA program, as created in 2012 and kept alive by the courts, requires the applicant among other criteria to have entered the US and been resident there since June 15, 2007,” wrote MPI Communications Director Michelle Mittlestadt. “So as currently configured, the program would not be open to arrivals who have been in the country less than 15 years.”

In other words, the thousands of children who continue to cross the border illegally are not currently eligible.

Meanwhile, there are 2 million cases pending before just 500 immigration judges nationwide and cases are taking as many as eight years to be resolved.

Under this administration’s disastrous policies, those numbers are sure to grow.

“The backlog with the court systems is just getting insane. It’s not going to get any better,” said Karisch. “They’re creating a problem that’s just going to continue to grow.”

Melissa Fine
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