The shift was evident Tuesday in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest migration corridors on the border in the past decade. Along border areas where migrant families have been crossing in large groups to surrender to U.S. authorities and seek protection, Border Patrol agents pursued a handful of adult men trying to evade capture. Officers' radios were mostly silent.
It is not unusual for agents to see a short-lived drop in border crossings when the government announces a major crackdown. Illegal entries rose to record levels late last year but have been trending downward in recent months, partly due to more aggressive enforcement by the Mexican government.
But Biden administration officials hope the declining numbers can blunt Republican criticism of the president's border record as he prepares for a debate Thursday with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Polls consistently show widespread disapproval of Biden's handling of border security and immigration issues.
Homeland Security officials cautioned that the results of the crackdown were preliminary, calling the measures an attempt to balance tougher enforcement with more generous opportunities for migrants to enter the United States legally.
Biden has implemented “the largest expansion of legal pathways and orderly processes in decades,” the DHS statement said, moves that “will free up the asylum system for people with legitimate claims.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant advocacy groups are filing a lawsuit to block Biden's asylum restrictions.
U.S. immigration law allows anyone entering U.S. territory to seek humanitarian protection if they have a well-founded fear of persecution or serious harm in their home country. The emergency measures Biden announced on June 4 suspend access to those protections on an emergency basis, arguing that the U.S. immigration system is too overwhelmed by illegal border crossings and insufficient resources.
Biden's measures require that asylum restrictions be lifted if there are fewer than 1,500 illegal crossings per day on average. They would return if levels exceeded 2,500 per day again.
A reduction in illegal crossings has allowed U.S. agents to better monitor the border and increase patrols, the department said, “increasing DHS’s efforts to interdict individuals who pose a threat to public safety.”
The DHS statement reflected the administration's call for lawmakers to increase funding for the U.S. immigration system, including a major expansion of detention and deportation operations.
DHS said the number of migrants allowed to enter the United States with pending legal proceedings after crossing the border illegally – the practice derided as “catch and release” – has fallen by 65 percent under Biden's measures. Deportations and returns to Mexico have doubled in the past three weeks, the department said.
