President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released at least more than 23,400 border crossers into the United States interior since February, data Breitbart News has reviewed reveals.
Between February 1 and March 22, Biden’s DHS released nearly 23,430 border crossers into the U.S. interior after apprehending them at the United States-Mexico border, the data shows.
For context, the totals indicate the Biden administration has released a foreign population into the U.S. via the southern border that is more than double the population of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Likely hundreds, potentially thousands, more border crossers have been released by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, the figures for which Breitbart News has not received at the time of this publication.
From March 1 to March 22, alone, Biden’s DHS released nearly 15,600 border crossers into the U.S. interior. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas previously suggested border crossers receive testing for the Chinese coronavirus before their release, though the agency has yet to confirm any such testing and quarantine requirements.
Reports by NBC News this month confirmed that between January 25 and March 1, almost 110 border crossers Biden’s DHS released ended up testing positive for the coronavirus. The total number of coronavirus-positive border crossers being released is likely much more, as the data came only from one region in Brownsville, Texas.
Even after border crossers test positive after their release, there continue to be no requirements that they quarantine. Many continue traveling throughout the U.S. Mayorkas confirmed in congressional testimony last week that DHS did release border crossers without testing them for coronavirus.
In February — Biden’s first full month in office after ending former President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program and canceling U.S. asylum agreements with Central America — DHS released nearly 8,000 border crossers.
The expansive Catch and Release program deployed by the Biden administration is staggering compared to its near nonexistence under the Remain in Mexico and U.S.-Central America asylum agreements. The control measures served as a legal wall to stave off illegal immigration.
In the final full three months of the Trump administration, for instance, DHS released just 42 border crossers into the U.S. interior. Compare that to Biden’s rate — a nearly 56,000 percent increase in the Catch and Release program.
Meanwhile, Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to Biden’s restart of the Catch and Release program. The latest Harvard/Harris Poll found almost 7-in-10 voters said border crossers should be returned to Mexico rather than released into the U.S. interior. Majorities of Hispanic voters, 54 percent, and swing voters, 68 percent, said border crossers should be returned to Mexico.
The last remaining control measure in place, the Center for Disease Control’s Title 42 order which gives federal immigration officials the authority to quickly return border crossers to their native countries, faces revocation by Biden and Mayorkas, sources tell Breitbart News.
The Title 42 order is highly effective in controlling illegal immigration. Since March 2020, more than 531,600 border crossers have been expelled from the U.S. under Title 42. Biden’s DHS, in February, expelled more than 72,100 border crossers using Title 42.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.