Byron York’s Daily Memo: Mayorkas invites more illegal crossers

MAYORKAS INVITES MORE ILLEGAL CROSSERS. After the mass incursion of 30,000 illegal border crossers in Del Rio, Texas, recently, with the squalid, under-the-bridge migrant camp that resulted, you might think the Biden administration would not want to make things worse. But you would be wrong.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has issued a new edict directing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, not to remove or deport any illegal immigrant just for the crime of being in the country illegally. “The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen … should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” Mayorkas writes in a Sept. 30 memo to the head of ICE and other top officials.

The only way Mayorkas will approve the deportation of an illegal immigrant is if that person, in addition to being in the country illegally, is a “threat to national security,” or a “threat to public safety,” or a “threat to border security.”

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The first category refers to terrorists and spies — a person who, in Mayorkas’s words, is “suspected of terrorism or espionage, or terrorism-related or espionage-related activities.” Of course they should be deported. But that is a relatively small group of people compared to the millions who have crossed the border illegally over the years.

The second category, a “threat to public safety,” refers to a person who has engaged in “serious criminal conduct.” Lest one conclude that Mayorkas wants tough enforcement against criminal illegal immigrants, he immediately lists several exceptions to the policy. First is the definition of “serious.” In the past, Democrats have sought to exclude significant categories of crime as a basis for removal — they’re just not “serious” enough to warrant deportation. Mayorkas lists several exceptions to his own policy. He says a criminal might be allowed to stay if the person is very young or very old. Or if the person has been in the United States for a long time. Or if the person has “a mental condition that may have contributed to the criminal conduct.” Or if the person has been a victim of another crime. Or if deporting the person would have an impact on their family in the U.S., “such as loss of provider or caregiver.” Or if the person, or even a member of their family, had engaged in “military or other public service.” Or if a significant amount of time had passed since the crime. Or if deportation would not serve a “broader public interest,” which could literally mean anything.

You get the idea. While trying to sound tough — We’re going to remove threats to public safety! — Mayorkas packs the new policy with so many exceptions that many, many criminal illegal immigrants will be allowed to stay in the U.S.

The final category, a “threat to border security,” was shaped by the Biden administration’s policy of admitting hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossers in its first months in office. The bottom line is — they can all likely stay.

Mayorkas declares an illegal immigrant a “threat to border security” if they are “apprehended at the border or port of entry while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States.” But the fact is, the Biden administration has already let those hundreds of thousands into the country, and Mayorkas’s memo directs that they not be removed. So the “threat to border security” category means nothing to them.

Then Mayorkas specifies that an illegal immigrant is also a “threat to border security” if they are “apprehended in the United States after unlawfully entering after November 1, 2020.” Again, that sounds tough, but the fact is, the Biden administration has already waved those people into the country, at least those who arrived after Jan. 20, 2021. They were processed, and in some cases given a “notice to appear” for later asylum adjudication proceedings, and in other cases were simply given entry into the country, as well as transportation to whatever city they chose. And now they will become a deportation priority? That’s not going to happen.

In its entirety, Mayorkas’s memo will offer even more encouragement to would-be illegal crossers. It will be yet another incentive for them to push across the border — not just those originally from Haiti, who made up most of the recent surge, but from everywhere else in the world.

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