Undocumented immigration population in US appears to have doubled in 3 years
WASHINGTON (TND) — The impact may not be known for decades, but the population of undocumented migrants living in the United States appears to have more than doubled in the last three years.
Since the start of 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that 9.6 million migrants have been encountered, with another 1.7 million estimated “gotaways,” bringing the total to 11.3 million.
Around 10.2 million were estimated to live in the United States at the end of 2020.
Some have blamed the shift in border policy by the Biden Administration, which they say limits border agents' ability to patrol the border.
“When they've been redeployed to do administrative work, processing work. Because the new plan at the federal government under this administration is expedited immigration processing. When's the last time we talked about border security?" Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said in an interview with The National Desk.
While President Biden undid several executive orders put in place by the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insists it’s part of a global change in mass migration. But, Mayorkas also admits plenty of people are taking advantage of an overwhelmed system.
In an interview with CBS News last week, Mayorkas said, "The reality is that some people do indeed try to game the system. That does not speak to everyone whom we encounter but there is an element of it and we deal with it accordingly.”
There are now indications that may include a new round of executive orders by Biden using authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to temporarily shut down the border if the numbers get too high.
It would be modeled on a similar policy laid out in the Senate border bill which allowed for activation of the policy if, during seven consecutive days, there is an average of five thousand people encountered each day.
Backers of the bill, which failed twice, accuse Republicans of preventing the problem from getting fixed to help Donald Trump in November.
"Donald Trump came out and said, don’t do it, I don’t want to give the current president a win so he’s playing politics with it, instead of focus on what the needs are for our law enforcement at the border," Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said in an interview with The National Desk.
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