WH MATH DOESN’T ADD UP
Only 13% – not ‘most’ – got turned back
Only around 13 percent of the nearly 13,000 family members who tried to illegally cross the border from Mexico into the United States last week were turned back, a report said Tuesday — undermining White House claims.
The Trump-era regulation called Title 42 allows US Customs and Border Protection to immediately deport incoming migrants to stem the spread of COVID-19.
But federal Department of Homeland Security data leaked to Axios shows that in recent days, the policy has hardly been followed — despite the ongoing pandemic that has wreaked damage across the world, the news site said.
Between March 14 and Sunday, an average of only 13 percent of almost 13,000 family members trying to enter the country were sent back to Mexico under the public-health order.
The damning data comes even as the Biden administration continues to claim that most people crossing unlawfully are sent back.
The White House has been struggling to handle a southern migration surge — especially among unaccompanied minors — that critics blame on Bid en’ s lax border policies.
As for the remaining 87 percent of the family members who crossed the border and were not rebuffed last week, they will reportedly be allowed to go through immigration proceedings in the US, according to Axios.
A DHS rep told Axios that “one week of statistics doesn’t reflect the full picture.
“Our policy remains that families are expelled, and in situations where expulsion is not possible due to Mexico’s inability to receive the families, they are placed into re
moval proceedings,” the representative said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said he knows of dozens of illegal immigrants who were stopped by US authorities at the state’s border over the weekend and allowed to continue on their way — without any notice of a future court date.
Cuellar — who released dire photos Monday from inside a US detention camp for unaccompanied migrant children — told Border Report that the “unprecedented’’ move is the result of a severely strained system.
“Over the weekend, at [the] Anzalduas area by the bridge, there were about 150 folks got released under what we call ‘prosecutorial discretion,’ because Border Patrol says, ‘We just don’t have the space,’ ” Cuellar said, referring to an area near the banks of the Rio Grande south of Mission in his district.
“And they got released without even a ‘Notice To Appear,’ which is, in my opinion, unprecedented that you’re going to release somebody and hope that they show up without a court date,” Cuellar said.
Migrants caught trying to illegally enter the country typically get at least formal court documents with a date to appear to have their cases adjudicated.
The freed illegals were “family units,’’ meaning adults and children, Cuellar said. The adults were checked to make sure they didn’t have criminal records, he said.
DHS acknowledged to Border Report in a statement, “In some cases, families are placed in removal proceedings further along in the release process rather than while they are at the border patrol station.
“All families, however, are screened at the border patrol station, including the collection of biographical and biometric information and criminal and national security records checks.’’
Cuellar on Tuesday added to “Fox & Friends’’ of the incident, “If somebody has an asylum claim, a credible fear claim, then I think they should ask for that.
“But I’d rather have them do it in their country instead of coming down here and then being released and not knowing if they’re going to show up later at a different time,” he said.
Cuellar said he released photos from inside one US child detention facility to show the sites are “not equipped to handle young people and families — they were set up to handle adults.”
“And I think under the pandemic it makes it even more important to understand why this is important to understand what’s happening at this facility,” he said.
“The administration just has to move them faster into the Health and Human Services facilities.”