Immigration agents and officers worry about the loopholes and workarounds that smuggling cartels and illegal immigrants can use to defeat President Biden’s new border policy rules.
The northern border, already with elevated levels of illegal immigration, is likely to become even more active as would-be migrants attempt to enter from Canada rather than Mexico.
Some young adults may attempt the more straightforward approach and lie about their age to take advantage of Mr. Biden’s loophole that exempts children from his stricter asylum rules.
“Cartels are helping individuals get in by giving them fake documents or telling them to claim juvenile status on entry,” one immigration officer told The Washington Times. “So we are going to have 21- and 22-yr-olds … coming to the border and falsely claiming status for release into the U.S.”
Mark Morgan, former acting commissioner at Customs and Border Protection, said he expects the cartels to increase business by telling parents that their children can be brought into the U.S. easily and adults can join them later.
“This is all smoke and mirrors,” Mr. Morgan said. “The exceptions in this are going to overtake the rule.”
Mr. Biden announced he was flexing powers under the Immigration and Nationality Act that allow him to suspend entire classes of migrants from entry to the U.S. He said he was barring entry of people without legal visas who enter along the southern border.
He created exceptions for illegal immigrant children traveling without parents. He said he was tightening asylum rules, which act as a defense against deportation, but his administration ordered immigration detention offices to post signs reminding migrants of their right to claim asylum.
The order doesn’t affect the roughly 70,000 migrants welcomed monthly under Biden-created “parole” programs. These programs allow otherwise unauthorized people to be caught and released if they preschedule their arrivals.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the president aims to drive migrants to use the programs.
“We have built an unprecedented number of lawful pathways, but we are going to secure our border and reduce the number of people who are encountered at it,” he said in an interview with NBC on Wednesday.
Mr. Biden has been met with severe criticism from all sides.
Immigrant rights advocates accused him of betraying his 2020 campaign rhetoric against similar policies of President Trump.
“Voters did not vote Trump out of office only to get Trump-era immigration policies under a Democratic administration,” said Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, an activist with the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
Immigration advocates said the new policy would strand true asylum-seekers in potentially dangerous conditions in Mexico.
Those on the immigration enforcement side of the equation doubted the changes would stop many people.
Mr. Morgan said the smuggling cartels are unlikely to easily give up an incredibly lucrative source of revenue.
In recent months, they have been shepherding more traffic to the U.S. border with Canada. Mr. Morgan said that becomes an even more viable option, given Mr. Biden exempted that border from his suspension.
“Let’s say some miraculous way that all of the sudden the flow does decrease, the cartels will be ‘No problem, pay me a little more money and we’ll get you to Canada,’” Mr. Morgan said.
Immigration officers were particularly miffed by the signs they had been told to post at detention centers.
The signs being posted at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers read: “If you: Are hungry or thirsty; Need medical care; Fear persecution or torture if removed from the United States; Have been a victim of abuse; Have been a victim of a sexual assault; Have witnessed a crime; Tell an Officer. Your claim will be heard; You may be referred to a medical professional, an asylum officer, or other law enforcement professional.”
The signs were ordered to be posted at intake rooms, medical units, housing and dining areas, and law libraries.
Republicans in Washington have universally criticized Mr. Biden’s action, saying it was too little and too late.
Democrats were more divided. Some recognized the president’s political troubles, and others said he was abandoning core party principles on immigration.
“Enforcement-only strategies have repeatedly proven ineffective and only create more chaos at the border,” said the leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.