Under the Biden administration, as many as 1 million illegal immigrants could be granted a “pardon” to remain in the United States.
Given the high number of people illegally entering the country along the southern border with Mexico — the largest numbers ever seen in American history — it’s getting difficult to argue that the United States of America has an actual border and with immigration cases stacking up federal prosecutors are quietly dismissing the cases, according to the Washington Examiner, which cited leaked information to report that under a Biden administration mandate the U.S. “could be on pace to effectively pardon 1 million people by 2024.”
“Attorneys for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have begun to throw out tens of thousands of the 2 million backlogged cases in immigration court following a political appointee’s order not to go after illegal border crossers from before the November 2020 election,” the newspaper reported.
“This is a de facto amnesty,” an ICE federal prosecutor told the Examiner on the condition of anonymity.
In effect, those who have had their cases dropped may now apply to become permanent legal residents, which makes them eligible to become U.S. citizens.
“All those removable aliens will be able to live and work in the United States indefinitely — which, in this context, means forever or at least until they themselves decide to leave. That is the definition of an amnesty,” wrote Andrew R. Arthur, former immigration judge and resident fellow of law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies
ICE’s principal legal adviser, Kerry Doyle, reportedly held virtual meetings with the more than 1,200 ICE prosecutors who bring cases against illegal immigrants nationwide and discussed at length who NOT to target for deportation. The Examiner obtained leaked video recordings of the meetings, reporting that the only cases being pursued were illegal immigrants identified as national security and public safety threats, or those who had crossed the border illegally prior to Nov. 1, 2020.
“All others would be dropped,” the paper added.
“As the memo explains — I think pretty clearly — we’ve put our thumb sort of heavily in favor of dismissal and durable solutions,” Doyle said in a private town hall meeting on April 14. “Even if you’ve spent a lot of time on the case, if it’s a nonpriority, you should be moving to offer [prosecutorial discretion] in that case.”
Doyle also dismissed the idea that a previously deported illegal immigrant caught reentering the U.S. posed a public safety concern on that offense alone.
“I don’t see how you could argue that being a public safety concern — just the illegal reentry,” Doyle said in the town hall.
“We aren’t telling you, ‘OK, if there’s … only two DUIs, it’s not a priority and there’s three DUIs, it is a priority,'” Doyle said. “It will depend … on that particular case. Was the DUI, the two DUIs in the last two months? Or were the DUIs 20 years ago and the person … shows that they’re now … being rehabilitated. They’re now in recovery. And things are different. I mean, those are two very, very different scenarios.”
The mandate reportedly took effect on April 25 and the ICE attorney said between 60,000 and 80,000 cases have been wiped out in the ensuing two months. At that pace, the number of dismissed cases could reach 360,000 to 480,000 by next April and 1 million by early summer 2024.
The mandate has severely undercut ICE, according to an insider — which is a clever way to avoid Congress and abolish the agency while keeping it in existence.
“Congress hasn’t passed it, but [Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro] Mayorkas’s chief lawyer at ICE is telling all prosecutors to dismiss cases. Once it’s dismissed, they’re not required to check in with you anymore,” the federal prosecutor told the Examiner.
The number of illegal immigrants encountered trying to enter the U.S. since President Biden took office less than 18 months ago is approaching 3 million, with at least 1,049,532 being released, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
“The latest Biden administration disclosures in Biden v. Texas reveal that in May, DHS released 95,318 migrants CBP had encountered at the Southwest border into the United States, bringing the total of illegal migrant releases there under the Biden administration to 1,049,532 — a population larger than the number of residents in the president’s home state of Delaware, at a rate of 2,115 per day,” the non-profit research organization reported.
Fox News reported that Border Patrol officers have “paroled more than 207,000 migrants to avoid overcrowding in detention centers, a system started under the Biden administration.”
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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