Border Crossings Might Be Declining — But That’s Not The Whole Story

Illegal migrants continue to flood into the U.S. despite a recent decline in border crossings due to the prevalence of alternative modes of entry under the Biden-Harris administration, masquerading the true scope of the border crisis.

The number of recorded illegal border crossings has dropped significantly in the past few months following an executive order from President Joe Biden capping border entries, the most recent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data show. Despite the apparent easing, illegal migrants have continued to enter the U.S. through other means, such as the CBP One app and the CHNV program.

“A lot of people are saying migration has halted. I dare say this is not the case,” stated Enrique Valenzuela, head of the Chihuahua Population Council, according to Border Report. “Here on this border, we find ourselves at somewhat of an impasse, where it would appear the flow of people stopped.”

“But we see there is more interest in coming in through CBP One,” Valenzuela continued, referencing an app that allows a large number of foreign nationals to apply for asylum daily. “We know because people come to us seeking help with the application.”

The CBP One app was first established in October 2020, with the Biden-Harris administration expanding its use in January 2023. The app enables migrants to schedule appointments in order to obtain exemptions at ports of entry, and permits them to submit biometric data to federal immigration authorities in order to apply for travel authorization and obtain parole.

More than 800,000 foreign nationals scheduled appointments through the CBP One app from January 2023 through the end of August 2024, according to CBP. The number of those being allowed in via the app almost rivals the number of Border Patrol encounters, with roughly 58,000 migrant apprehensions in August and 44,700 processed via the app that same month.

“All those people who make appointments with the CBP One app have no right to be in the United States,” Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Biden-Harris administration has decided to allow in 1,400 of those people per day make those appointments.”

“And we know from congressional disclosures that 95.8% of everybody who uses the app ends up getting released into the country on parole and they’re placed into removal proceedings,” Arthur continued. “If you’re placed into removal proceedings with a Notice to Appear, you’re here illegally. That is the allegation that the government is making — you are removable from the United States.”

The Biden-Harris administration has also flown in more than half a million foreign nationals into the country via an initiative known as CHNV — a program that grants two-year parole to Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals. The White House announced in October that those enrolled in the CHNV program, which has been plagued with widespread fraud, would not have their parole renewed.

Roughly 30,000 migrants were being flown into the U.S. a month via the CHNV parole program.

While these migrant initiatives have been taking place, the Biden-Harris administration has been enforcing an executive order first enacted in June that caps the number of daily unlawful encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy appears to be keeping illegal border crossings down, with monthly Border Patrol encounters in September reaching their lowest levels since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris entered office, according to CBP data.

House Homeland Committee Chairman Mark Green, a frequent critic of the White House’s border policies, has referred to the CHNV program and the CBP One app as a “massive shell game” that has allowed the administration to tout lower border crossings while the number of otherwise inadmissible migrants entering the U.S. explodes.

The Mexican government, in the meantime, has been more ardently cracking down on U.S.-bound illegal migration through its country. However, critics remain skeptical of how long Mexican officials will continue to keep many of these migrants at bay.

Todd Bensman, also of the Center for Immigration Studies, filmed a large group of migrants in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula on Monday. He suggested that they are being kept away from the U.S. border for now, but may be making their way north after the election.

“Biden-Harris did THIS for election optics, in December got Mexico to haul thousands of immigrants here in Tapachula and sardine-can trap them to claim low US crossings and keep them off US media during the campaign,” Bensman stated. “Been here five times and never seen so many as this. Stay tuned.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.