Trump-era order expelled more than half of migrants at US-Mexico border: report

A Trump-era health order that has been continued by President Biden’s administration was used to expel more than half of the migrants at the southern border in recent weeks, according to a report from CNN.

Although Biden said at his first press conference as president on Thursday that he makes “no apologies” for nixing many of Trump’s immigration policies, he has kept Trump’s health order and has used it to send away thousands of migrants.

Biden at that press conference also emphasized that most of the people arriving at the border are being sent back.

He said the “vast majority, the overwhelming majority of people coming to the border and crossing are being sent back,” and later said that the “vast majority of the families that are coming” are being sent back. 

The data in CNN’s report showed that more than 61,000 migrants out of 103,000 were turned away at the border in the last three weeks through March 17 under the Trump health order. 

However, CNN also found that 21,000 family members were apprehended and processed into the United States, while 7,600 family members were expelled. 

“This administration draws the line when it comes to children. We don’t expel young children back into violence or further trauma,” an official told CNN.

However, due to the influx of migrants, many are being let into the country without a “notice to appear,” sources told CNN. This makes it hard for the U.S. to track who was let into the country and it makes it hard for migrants to push their asylum case. 

The Biden administration has had to open six new facilities in the past month in order to house all the migrants coming across the border.

A DHS official told CNN the migrants have to start their own immigration process when they do not receive a “notice to appear.” This is a new practice under Biden as this process was only used on a case-by-case basis before.

“The oversaturation is so great that in order to move people fast enough, that is what we have had to resort to,” a DHS official said. “Resources are stretched so thin.”

Biden is fighting back against claims from Republicans that the influx in migrants is due to his policies.

“I’d like to think it’s because I’m a nice guy, but it’s not,” Biden said. “The reason they’re coming is that it’s the time they can travel with the least likelihood of dying on the way because of the heat in the desert, No 1. No. 2, they’re coming because of the circumstances in their country.”