More than 200,000 migrants were detained for illegal entry in August, roughly the same number as in July. Of those 200,000, just 44% were returned to Mexico under Title 42’s contagion containment authority. That means for the second month in a row, over 100,000 migrants were released by the Biden administration into the United States to go wherever they want.
Supposedly, these migrants will show up in court to pursue an asylum defense against deportation. But less than 15% of migrants who apply for asylum after illegally crossing the southern border are ever granted the status. That means the other 85% are left free to roam the country even though they have no lawful business here.
President Joe Biden made an explicit promise not to deport these migrants during his campaign, and he has followed through on that promise by decreasing Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations to all-time lows.
So what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of migrants who are illegally entering the U.S. under Biden? Eventually, they will be given what the existing 11 million illegal immigrants are about to get: amnesty.
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee introduced legislation that will be included in Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending plan. It would give amnesty to virtually every illegal immigrant in the U.S. today — the largest amnesty in history.
The two main groups of illegal immigrants who will be given green cards by the legislation are so-called “Dreamers” and essential workers.
To qualify for the Dreamer amnesty, an illegal immigrant must have entered the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2021, while under age 18, and they must either be enrolled in school or have worked for three years in the U.S. This category is far, far broader than those illegal immigrants currently benefiting from President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, as the cutoff for that amnesty was June 15, 2012.
To qualify for essential worker amnesty, an illegal immigrant must have entered the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2021, must demonstrate “a consistent record of earned income in the United States,” and must work in a pandemic-related “essential” industry. Which industries qualify as essential? Well, we already know that from a previous DHS memo that identifies essential industries to include: construction, healthcare, food, agriculture, and transportation. That is literally almost every industry that any large number of illegal immigrants work in.
Democrats claim that by giving these illegal immigrants green cards, they are not creating a new path to citizenship. And it is true, the path would not be new. But the awarding of green cards, which constitutes an amnesty, makes every one of these formerly illegal immigrants eligible to apply for citizenship in five years, just like all other green card holders.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this Biden amnesty will cost taxpayers $140 billion for taxpayer-funded federal programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act over the next 10 years. But the long-term cost will be far higher. As illegal immigrants, migrants that work are currently a net bonus to our Social Security and Medicare systems. But if we give them amnesty and they are allowed to draw benefits from these programs, these illegal immigrants will end up costing taxpayers an additional $1 trillion over their lifetimes.
The designers of Biden’s amnesty were careful not to include the tens of thousands of migrants Biden is currently ushering into our country every month. The cutoff day for eligibility is Jan. 1, 2021, before Biden created the border crisis.
But since Biden is never going to deport these new migrants either, Democrats will eventually give them amnesty, just as they are giving amnesty to all the migrants that came before them. The migrants crossing now know this. And that is why hundreds of thousands more will keep coming.
