EXCLUSIVE — A leading Republican senator on border issues has implored the Trump administration’s top homeland security officials to investigate the status of nearly a million illegal immigrants who were waived into the United States with minimal vetting and are largely untraceable.
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) has asked White House border czar Tom Homan and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to determine the status of 810,000 immigrants who were admitted into the country under former President Joe Biden. The majority of them were not initially given a court date or legal process to follow, leaving them untraceable. This figure is in addition to the several million illegal immigrants House Republicans found were released into the country with a court date under Biden.
“While 531,425 aliens who were processed under this program reported to ICE within 60 days, only 354,896 aliens have been served a Notice to Appear in immigration court and began the removal process,” Lankford wrote in his letter Tuesday, first obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Approximately 445,000 immigrants of the 810,000 have never been given a document ordering them to appear in immigration court, thus giving them no repercussions for entering the country illegally and no way for the government to locate them.
“Many of the aliens released under these pathways have received minimal vetting and have not complied with the terms of their release. Accordingly, I ask that you prioritize the vetting of and removal of inadmissible aliens who were released under this program.”
“What is your plan for addressing this population in the Administration’s enforcement efforts?” Lankford added.
The hundreds of thousands of MIA illegal immigrants could provide the Trump administration with a new pool of people to target for arrests and deportation, further aiding the president’s deportation operation.
As the border crisis intensified in early 2021, shortly after Biden took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection instituted a new method for releasing illegal immigrants into the country in which each immigrant would be given a Notice to Report.
This is separate from the standard practice of issuing a Notice to Appear document, which is provided after an immigrant has been vetted and then placed in court proceedings, rather than relying on immigrants to self-report to ICE facilities and with no firm date to see a judge, as is the Notice to Report process.
CBP was made to admit immigrants who illegally entered the country from Mexico, as well as paroled others into the country who were not recognized as refugees or asylum-seekers.
Lankford’s office learned from ICE in late January that exactly 810,281 immigrants were released into the country through these new methods rather than given a Notice to Appear in court.
Normally, immigrants were handed a Notice to Appear, which showed they had been scheduled to appear in immigration court and would be placed on the immigration court docket.
“Under this [Notice to Report] policy, CBP would release illegal aliens who crossed the border and ask them to call a 1-800 number to report themselves to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for processing,” Lankford wrote.
Border Patrol and ICE were under pressure to keep detention facilities operating like a turnstile gate and were told to prioritize releasing immigrants quickly rather than taking the time to screen them thoroughly and then place them into court proceedings, Lankford wrote in his letter.
“As I and my staff looked at this program, we discovered that CBP collected limited biometrics and performed minimal security checks before releasing an illegal alien under this program. It took months for CBP and ICE to develop a process to track and monitor illegal aliens who were released,” Lankford continued.
The Government Accountability Office also concluded that ICE had “significant difficulties” validating the addresses that immigrants later provided to authorities, and many locations were fake or invalid.
The expeditious releases were stalled following a lawsuit.
Lankford asked Noem and Homan to provide details on where the 810,281 immigrants stand in immigration proceedings and how many have committed a criminal offense while in the country.
The senator also asked Trump administration officials about the status of the parolees. Parole could range from 18 months to two years, meaning many admitted early on under the Biden administration would likely have had their parole expire and be at-large in the country if they did not renew their parole status.
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“Given ICE’s unwillingness to provide basic answers about this program and the continued delays in addressing this population, I ask that you prioritize this population as you work toward fully enforcing immigration law in the interior of the United States,” Lankford wrote. “I am concerned that the Biden Administration’s operation of these programs has resulted in hundreds of thousands of aliens absconding after receiving minimal vetting.”
Noem and Homan did not respond to Lankford’s letter but have been working alongside President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration and are expected to assist Lankford to the extent possible.