The figure of 2.3 million is much lower than the number of more than 6 One million immigrants have been detained by Customs and Border Protection During the same period, a number of President Biden's critics used Republicans as an alternative to comprehensive immigration.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged the rise in numbers this week and said released migrants were subject to deportation proceedings. But he said deporting people who don't qualify to stay takes too long, and he urged Congress to boost funding for the agency.
“This is precisely why we have said from day one of this administration that our fundamentally broken immigration system needs to be fixed,” Mayorkas told Fox News on Thursday.
DHS did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
DHS data released Friday shows that more than 4 million border crossers have been expelled to Mexico, returned to their home countries or deported from the United States over the past three years.
The 4 million figure includes more than 2.5 million migrants expelled by CBP using the pandemic-era Title 42 policy that allowed border agents to quickly return migrants to Mexico or their home countries without giving them a chance to seek U.S. protection. The policy, which the Biden administration ended in May, inflated CBP encounter numbers in part because it allowed border crossers to make repeated attempts without fear of legal consequences such as imprisonment.
The numbers in the report were produced by the agency's new Office of Homeland Security Statistics, a unit created last year to provide more data to the public at a time when immigration remains a major political issue nationwide.
CBP's mass deployments place a heavy burden on U.S. communities because large groups of migrants, including families with children, often arrive in need of shelter, meals and services. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (right) has sent nearly 100,000 immigrants to US cities like Chicago, New York and Washington, straining their finances and inflaming tensions between Democratic mayors and the White House.
The Border Patrol, part of Customs and Border Protection, released 1.8 million migrants into the United States over the past three years, including a record 909,450 during fiscal year 2023 that ended Sept. 30, DHS data showed.
The Border Patrol typically releases migrants if they are traveling with children to avoid being held in crowded detention facilities with adults. Agents also release migrants when detention facilities become over capacity.
CBP's Office of Field Operations, which monitors legal checkpoints crowded with travelers and international trade, has also released an additional 487,830 migrants in the past three years, most of them in fiscal year 2023. Even though they arrive at an official port of entry, they may still be deported. These immigrants end up if they do not qualify for legal status in the United States.
Families made up the majority of the 2.3 million people released by CBP. Department of Homeland Security data shows that about 70% of all families detained by the United States over the past three years have been released along the border. In 2023, the proportion of families who were released — not returned home or returned to Mexico — rose to 81 percent.
DHS data shows that adults traveling without children are released by Customs and Border Protection at a much lower rate. About 1 million adults in CBP custody have been released, accounting for about a quarter of those apprehended by the agency.
The 2.3 million releases by CBP do not include the nearly 365,000 unaccompanied minors the agency has encountered since 2021 and who were transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. Minors are generally assigned to federal shelters and later released to a parent or guardian.
Migrant families crossing the border between the United States and Mexico Such cases have been increasing over the past decade, and are of particular concern to federal immigration officials because detention centers are built for adults, and federal courts have imposed limits on how long officials can detain children.
The Trump administration said it had to release the families because it could not hold the children longer. In 2019, when the Trump administration faced a record influx of migrants traveling as family groups, CBP directly released more than 258,000 people, including many families, a period during which CBP officials said their agents… Their infrastructure has reached “breaking point.” “
The Biden administration ended family detention because officials said children should not be detained, but it also means traveling as a family increases the group's odds of entering the United States. Many families trek through dangerous forests and crime-ridden areas to reach the border, and children often arrive sick and underweight. Some children died during the journey and while in US custody.
Immigrants must check with immigration officials to face deportation proceedings once they settle in the United States. Many do, but others do not, leading to a large backlog in immigration cases and fears that immigration officials are unable to deport immigrants who are not eligible to remain.
Border officials have exercised their authority to release migrants in the past, but more moderately, such as allowing people seeking medical care or fleeing persecution to enter.
From fiscal years 2014 to 2020, 463,110 migrants were released into the United States from the southern border. Part of Biden's first year overlapped with Trump's, although Biden was more likely to allow immigrants into the United States. The data does not take into account migrants who slipped past the Border Patrol and entered the United States.
Venezuelans were the largest group released over the past three fiscal years, with more than 382,600 passing through border facilities. Cubans came in second place, with more than 316,000 people released, followed by more than 200,000 from Nicaragua and Honduras.
Others were allowed into the United States through a parole program aimed at dissuading them from crossing the southern border illegally. More than 350,000 migrants have been allowed into airports, mainly through a program that grants legal entry to Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans if they find a US resident to sponsor them.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for detaining and deporting immigrants within the United States, also releases some immigrants after receiving them from CBP.
Records show that ICE has enrolled more than 650,000 immigrants in electronic monitoring programs known as “alternatives to detention” since fiscal year 2021. The number includes individuals detained by ICE at the U.S. land border as well as those detained by ICE in Interior of the United States.
The report does not include estimates of the number of border crossers detected by CBP but not detained, a category the agency refers to as “smugglers.” CBP detected about 600,000 escapes in 2022 and 389,000 in 2021, according to a May 2023 report from the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.
