Border Patrol Has Now Made It Possible For Migrants To Enter The Country Without Submitting Hours Of Paperwork

As the Department of Health and Human Services works to open another facility for migrant children who have been left unaccompanied in Pecos, Texas, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector have started processing and releasing those who crossed the border illegally who claim asylum while failing to issue a Notice to Appear, which would give them the right to depart custody sooner without having a set date for a hearing.

Now, it is the responsibility of the migrant to schedule an asylum hearing with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or personal legal assistance.

This new process was confirmed by several Border Patrol agents who admitted they were told to use prosecutorial discretion in order to avoid filling out the paperwork needed to issue an NTA, which can take hours for an individual or family.

A member of the Customs and Border Protection said officials were considering the action because the overwhelming crisis at the border has “become so dire that BP [Border Patrol] has no choice but to release people nearly immediately after apprehension because there is no space to hold people even to do necessary NTA paperwork.”

According to a spokesperson from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, “While ORR has worked to build up its licenced bed capacity to almost 13,500 beds, additional capacity is urgently needed to manage both enhanced COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the increasing numbers of UC referrals from DHS.”

Chief Alejandro Mayorkas of the Department of Homeland Security said that border crossings could soon be higher than they have in the last 20 years. In February alone, the CBP encountered over 100,000 migrants at the border and the number of child migrants in custody have increased dramatically.

The Biden administration has been working to increase the capacity of facilities to house these migrants as well as looking at using NASA sites and military bases as locations for extra facilities.