The Biden administration recently introduced seemingly draconian asylum restrictions to ease the border crisis.
The administration claims new regulations have reduced the level of illegal immigration, but the total number of foreigners entering the United States has not changed much.
The Biden administration is simply twisting the law to bring in hundreds of thousands of foreigners who would otherwise have entered the country illegally. If they come here, they will put pressure on American workers and strain an already overburdened American safety net program. And given that a federal judge just overturned the government’s asylum restrictions, the total number of economic migrants flocking to the United States could rise soon.
according to CBS newsThe Biden administration has admitted at least 541,000 immigrants through “parole” powers that allow the government to admit immigrants without visas. CBS News estimates are seriously underestimated. It excludes some parole programs that were in place for some time but were later terminated by courts, and also ignores the fact that the DHS does not publish the full number of parolees. There are currently well over 1 million people on parole in the country, with some estimates putting the number at 1.4 million.
Either way, the numbers are unprecedented and questionable. Parole is not meant to take in entire groups of foreigners. Rather, it offers temporary entry on an emergency basis on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “vital public interest.”
Consider how the president promised to admit 360,000 immigrants Annually from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. As of mid-July, the program has received about 170,000 immigrants. Each time I arrived, I became eligible to “sponsor” a new parolee from my hometown. What could go wrong with this?
In addition, there is also the CPB One app that immigrants use to make reservations at the border “port of entry”. The app is supposed to stop illegal border crossings and drive border crossers to official border “ports.” As of June 30, more than 130,000 immigrants have entered the country using the app.According to the center-left Immigration Policy Institute (MPI) “Only a small percentage of those appointed to CBP One undergo actual asylum screening. Instead, they are screened only for security concerns and are often quickly released into the country. I have.”
Meanwhile, parole programs in Afghanistan and Ukraine brought in an additional 77,000 and 141,200 immigrants, respectively. The “Unity for Ukraine” program does not even have a numerical upper limit.
On July 7, the DHS announced the latest expansion of parole powers. People from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala who have relatives in the United States can skip ahead of similarly qualified foreigners in the green card queue. DHS estimates that 73,500 may qualify.
No wonder the Department of Homeland Security claims that “this administration has led the greatest expansion of legal regulation.” [immigration] The road will open for the first time in decades. “
The administration’s abuse of parole will hurt the tens of millions of workers already living in the United States, including legal immigrants. A steady influx of immigrants will intensify job competition and push down wages for blue-collar workers. By one estimate, immigration reduces wages by at least 3% for a meager 10% increase in the number of workers in the industry.
Case in point: America’s low-skilled workforce has grown by about 25% over the past two decades thanks to immigration. Meanwhile, wages fell between $800 and $1,500 each year.
U.S. taxpayers will be responsible for large public welfare costs. Immigrants entering the United States on parole for less than one year are eligible for HUD public housing and Section 8 programs. and many parolees receive SNAPs (commonly known as “food stamps”) are enforced in most states. According to the Biden administration, reliance on food stamps should not undermine an immigrant’s chances of eventually becoming a U.S. citizen.
Meanwhile, parolees from Afghanistan and Ukraine are automatically eligible to apply for all welfare benefits upon arrival. Parolees participating in programs other than Ukrainian or Afghan programs must wait five years after arrival to become an “eligible immigrant” (an immigrant category covered by Medicaid, CHIP, TANF, or other benefit programs). not.
Someone should select tabs for all these services. George Fishmana former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Chief Counsel, estimates that if a majority of current parolees reaches the five-year threshold, it will cost a million parolees a yearly price tag of $3 billion.
As one activist aptly put it, parole is the “golden ticket” for immigrants. However, like Willy Wonka, there are only a limited number of tickets available in America, and no free tickets. These are the truths the Biden administration needs to remember.
Don Barnett is a retired IT professional and freelance writer who has published extensively on asylum and refugee issues.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
