Immigration officials are worried about an overwhelming flood of illegal immigration if Democratic candidate Joe Biden becomes president as many now expect will happen.
Already, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are encountering tens of thousands more Central American and Mexican immigrants than they have over the past few months. But this surge is just the beginning of what’s to come if Biden takes office, immigration officials said.
“The numbers are going up for one reason: because of the Biden effect,” Tom Homan, the former acting director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the Washington Examiner.
Over the past eight months, the number of attempted illegal entries has jumped from 17,000 in April to 70,000 in November.
The Trump administration implemented two policies that have widely reduced illegal immigration: the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42, which allows immigration officials to return illegal immigrants to Mexico immediately after they are arrested in the U.S.
Both of these policies, however, could be rolled back by a Biden administration.
“[If] those valves are just turned on completely, you will see a global crisis within a couple of weeks,” CBP acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said on Monday.
Thousands of illegal immigrants are traveling to the southern border in anticipation of a Biden administration, former acting CBP Deputy Commissioner Ron Vitiello said.
Biden’s immigration plan includes opening a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, shutting down private detention centers, rebooting the catch-and-release policy, and placing a 100-day moratorium on deportations.
“These numbers are rising because people know that we’re going to go back to the old policies, and that’s advantageous if you are in a third-world country like Guatemala and the economy’s tanking and there’s not enough work, and you know it’s dangerous because the cartels run the show,” he explained. “That wouldn’t have happened four months ago.”
