Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents show that the Biden administration is well aware that the majority of migrants traveling to the United States from South America are coming for economic reasons rather than fleeing persecution. I understand.
December Report from CBP Retrieved by NewsNation’s Ali Bradley U.S. border officials have interviewed hundreds of migrants passing through the Darien Gap, a narrow jungle zone that connects Central and South America, and not a single one reported they were fleeing political prosecution in their home countries. said.
“Apart from extortion threats, there were no reports that gangs or other criminal organizations targeted migrants for purposes such as assassinations, and no migrants claimed political prosecution,” the report said.
Officials conducted interviews in the dangerous cartel-controlled jungles that most migrants traveling to the United States must pass through on their way north, and what “drivers” or “pull factors” they identified. We investigated what drives people to travel.
A total of 235 immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic were interviewed by CBP with Panamanian immigration officials.
According to the report, the most commonly cited motivations were poverty and a corrupt economy, with immigrants paying basic childcare costs nearly twice their typical monthly income and food at exorbitant prices. and describes countries where extortion was commonplace.
Some cited seeking a better future for their children and reuniting with family members already in the United States.
According to CBP, these motives run counter to what is required to meet the criteria for asylum in the United States: a credible fear of prosecution based on race, religion, national origin, politics, or social identity. .
Under current asylum law, immigrants interviewed at Darien Gap are not eligible to enter the country to seek asylum.
The existence of this report also suggests that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has known since at least early December that many immigrants coming to the United States do not meet entry requirements.
It is unclear whether any of the people interviewed by Darien Gapo arrived in the United States or what they told border officials during interviews to assess their eligibility.
Cartel smugglers, nicknamed “Coyotes,” have been known to instruct people on what to tell U.S. troops at the border to gain entry.
Asylum seekers must wait 150 days after submitting their asylum application before applying for a work permit, a measure enacted more than a decade ago to discourage economic immigration.
However, a bill will be introduced in Congress in May 2023 by a group of Democratic lawmakers including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand. We tried to reduce this waiting period to 30 days.
Despite this information, more than 276,000 asylum seekers crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and encountered Border Patrol agents in December, the highest number of encounters in a single month on record. Ta.
These hundreds of thousands exceed the 3.2 million migrants encountered nationwide in fiscal year 2023, including 2.4 million along the southern border.
Immigration courts currently face a backlog of more than 3 million cases, which is expected to take years to resolve. Most asylum seekers, whether they qualify or not, are allowed to remain in the country for years before being tried in court.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
