Members of Congress are asking the White House why the Customs and Border Patrol has not released the numbers of border apprehensions in December.
Border numbers are routinely released in the first two weeks of the subsequent month, although November’s figures were released on Dec. 17 of last year.
On Jan. 14, a court filing in Texas v. Biden revealed 178,840 migrant apprehensions in December, an increase from 173,620 in November. A spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon that a report would be released “soon” but never said why the report was delayed in the first place.
Congressional Republicans have criticized the Biden administration’s lack of transparency during one of the largest illegal immigration surges in recent history. They have alleged the delay is nothing more than an effort to conceal the severity of the crisis on the southern border.
“We don’t have the December numbers, and it’s certainly something [CBP] knows. They’re just not releasing them,” Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas) told the Free Beacon. “We know it’s going to be an absolutely staggering and embarrassing number, and they don’t let the American people know it. If we get power back in 2023, we should have oversight hearings on Day One.”
The court document also reveal there were 55,626 migrants released into the interior of the United States that month.
“Americans just want to know. If there’s bad news, we as the American population can handle it, but we want to know what’s going to be done about it,” Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas) told the Free Beacon. “There’s just not a lot of transparent behavior when it comes to the Department of Homeland Security from the Biden administration.”
President Joe Biden has overseen the largest influx of migrants at the southern border in recorded history. During the 2021 fiscal year, Border Patrol arrested more than 1.6 million migrants.
Despite those figures, Biden has failed to disclose a variety of reports that provide a fuller picture of how many illegal immigrants remain in the United States. The Free Beacon reported earlier this month the Department for Homeland Security has yet to release its annual report on the number of deportations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2021.
By law, those reports are to be issued in a timely manner. And the reason for the delay is totally political — it’s not an administrative error, and someone’s dog didn’t eat the data.
The numbers alone would embarrass the Biden administration. But when you consider that half of those illegals released into the interior of the U.S. aren’t showing up for their court appearances and that DHS has lost all track of them, “embarrassing” doesn’t begin to describe the stupidity of the policy.
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