Biden ’s Border Immigration Policy Is Still Reducing Border Crossings and Illegal Immigration

Alex NowrastehFrom December 2022 to February 2023, encounters of migrants crossing the southwest (SW) border with Mexico are down 39 percent. President Biden ’s immigration and borderplan that expanded legal migration to the United States through humanitarian parole should take credit for this decline. Under Biden ’s plan, up to 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti (VCNH migrants) are allowed to enter the United States legally each month through humanitarian parole. As a result, more of them are waiting to come legally rather than attempting to cross illegally.In February 2023, the number of VCNH migrantsencountered, found inadmissible by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or apprehended by Border Patrol decreased by 84 percent compared to December 2022. The number of VCNH migrants showing up at the border fell from 91,344  in December to 22,084 in January and then further down to 14,381 in February (see Figure 1).This trend supportsCato ’stheorythat legal migration discourages illegal immigration and border crossings. Non ‐​VCNH migrants who do not have the option of humanitarian parole fell by only 12.5 percent from 160,651 in December 2022 to 134,192 in January and rose again to 140,617 in February. Almost 80 percent of the total decline in encounters along the border from December to February comes from a  reduction in VCNH migrants.VCNH migrants can apply for humanitarian parole from their home countries, and they must meet all h...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs