Illegal immigration starting to hit home for US cities

Big-city Democratic mayors such as New York’s Eric Adams and DC’s Muriel Bowser have realized, suddenly, that illegal immigrants are straining their social safety nets.

They’re accusing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, but there’s only one person to blame: President Biden.

It was only ever the Biden government that did this, starting on inauguration day 2021, with radical policies gutting detention and deportation. They unleashed a mass migration crisis far beyond anything in the American experience, one that has utterly smashed every single illegal immigration record on the books.

As things stand, well over 2 million border crossers have fanned out across America. Millions more will be granted admittance in the next two years if the administration stays this course. By the end of Biden’s term, at this rate, the number of people let in at the border will probably exceed 6 million.

Where did these mayors think all these people were going after Border Patrol processes and releases them into the interior on an honor system to report one day to their local ICE office?

Let me give you an idea. From those hectic first early days of the crisis to the present, as hundreds of thousands a month were storming over to get their quick Biden free passage in, I was there to observe a human conveyor belt system roar to life all over Texas. All day and often all night in Texas and in other border states, it swiftly moves thousands every day through a day or two of Border Patrol processing and then, with the help of local nonprofits, onto charter and commercial buses and planes that take them to just about every city in the nation.

The first time I saw it happening, in March 2021, the immigrants on buses or waiting in Texas bus stations said they were going to: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky.

The last time I visited the conveyor belt in Del Rio was in May 2022. The only thing that changed was that volumes had become massive. All day, every day, full Border Patrol buses were pulling up to the nonprofit facility, right behind Greyhound buses taking others to cities across the country, and offloading them to get onto commercial buses. They told me they were going to: New Jersey, New York State, Florida, Oregon, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Utah, California, Minnesota, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Colorado.

Most were released on a presumption that they’ll eventually apply for asylum; the Biden government stopped long ago even pretending to follow lawful processes. It’s an honor system now. But all statistics show that most will either never actually apply or will be declined. None will leave after their legal permission slips expire, and the Biden administration has ended deportation as America has always known it. Unless they are terrorists or serial killers, these illegal immigrants will not be deported.

That means America’s cities are to be stuck with literally millions of people who are not authorized to work and support themselves. So big city mayors who act like they had no idea this was going on, get a clue. Buck up. Stop casting blame on some Republican governor far away. And pull out your city’s wallet. This has only just begun.

https://nypost.com/2022/07/20/illegal-immigration-starting-to-hit-home-for-us-cities/

**********************************************

Biden eyes plan to give I.D.s to unauthorized immigrants

The Biden administration plans to test providing temporary I.D. cards to unauthorized immigrants awaiting a final decision on their cases, according to two government sources familiar with the planning.

Why it matters: Recent border crossers and other unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. often do not have I.D.s , making it more difficult to access housing, healthcare, transportation and other benefits.

Officials are considering a pilot program to relieve some of those burdens, while also incentivizing more frequent communication with law enforcement throughout the complicated court process, the sources said.

Don‘t forget: Congressional members included $10 million for the program, which is called the "ICE Secure Docket Card program" in the FY 2023 appropriations bill.

The administration is hoping to get needed Congressional approval before the end of September to roll out a pilot — before a potential Republican takeover in November.
How it works: The details of the program and who would be enrolled in a pilot are not yet decided.

Generally, I.D. cards would be provided to migrants not in detention centers who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border or others without legal status going through the lengthy immigration or removal court processes.

The card would likely include a QR code that would provide the enrollee access to court information and documents via an app, the sources said. This could potentially lessen the mounting number of FOIA requests for information about immigration cases.

It would also allow unauthorized immigrants such as asylum seekers to prove — if stopped by authorities — they are already in the immigration system.

Ideally, it would also incentivize unauthorized immigrants to provide accurate information about their location and virtually check-in more often with law enforcement —rather than having to wait in line at a physical ICE office.

What to watch: If given the green light, there could be even bigger potential uses for such I.D. cards down the line.

They could be presented to TSA agents to allow unauthorized immigrants to more easily travel by plane or to access certain state benefit programs.

What they're saying: “The ICE Secure Docket Card program is part of a pilot program to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card," an ICE spokesperson tells Axios.

The secure card will contain a photo, biographic identifiers, and "cutting-edge security features" to the mutual benefit of the government and noncitizens, the spokesperson added.

Specifics of the program are still under development, but ICE says the primary goal of the SDC is to "improve current, inconsistent paper forms that often degrade rapidly in real world use." Pending the outcome of the pilot, ICE says it will consider to further expand it.

The big picture: It's yet another sign of the administration's attempt to revamp ICE — the agency charged with arresting, detaining and deporting unauthorized immigrants.

Under Biden, the agency has already ended family detention, attempted to focus arrests on immigrants with criminal records and dramatically expanded alternative to detention programs, which use apps and devices to trace unauthorized immigrants as opposed to locking them up.

It would not be the first time the administration turns to mobile apps to deal with a backlogged immigration system. Last year, border officials began using an app to process asylum seekers at the border, as the L.A. Times reported at the time.

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/biden-id-cards-immigrants-undocumented-ice

***********************************

My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

*******************************