Tens of thousands of migrants who illegally crossed into the United States from Mexico and were released into the country during President Joe Biden’s first year in office have disappeared and are untraceable, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security.
Nearly half, or 47,705, of the more than 100,000 noncitizens who were released from Border Patrol custody at the southern border in 2021 between March 21 and Aug. 31 and given instructions to self-report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 60 days have failed to check in, the DHS disclosed to Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.
“DHS data shows the practice of issuing [Notices to Report] has been an abysmal failure,” a press release from Johnson said, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Before March 21, 2021, when an illegal immigrant was released by the Border Patrol into the U.S. rather than being returned to Mexico or another country of origin, he or she was given a Notice to Appear, a document that requires the person to show up for immigration court at a future date. It placed each person in the legal system, which is backlogged with 1.5 million cases pending, and tracked the person through that date.
In March, as the number of migrants encountered at the southern border rose, from 78,000 in Biden’s first month in office to 173,000 in March, Border Patrol was ordered to release people with Notices to Report instead. The move would cut down the amount of time that Border Patrol agents would have to spend doing paperwork and requesting court dates for each person. The Biden administration sought to entice people given Notices to Report to show up by providing those who did with documents to work legally in the U.S.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told senators in September that those who fail to self-report to ICE “would qualify as an enforcement priority of ours,” meaning the 47,705 could be targeted by ICE’s Enforcement Removal Operations officers for arrest and deportation. The statement would mean the DHS could go after the 47,705 missing noncitizens, though their whereabouts remain unknown.
