More than 283,000 migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico this past year were let into the United States, despite the Biden administration’s claims that it was immediately turning away adults and families, the Washington Examiner has learned.

The extremely high number of releases at the southern border, based on unreleased Border Patrol data shared with the Washington Examiner by Rep. Henry Cuellar, means that one-in-six of the 1.66 million people who walked across between land ports of entry were let go directly by the Border Patrol between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30.

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