The Biden administrationβs new migration policies seem to be cutting the number of undocumented migrants at the border for the second month in a row, according to federal data released Wednesday.
They also seem to be moving irregular migration for some nationalities away from dangerous crossings to ports of entry.
Nationally, the numbers of migrant apprehensions in January and February were about 208,500 and 212,300, respectively, down from 302,000 in December, before the policies went into full effect.
In Arizona, the numbers of apprehensions in January and February were about 32,800 and 35,400, respectively, down from 54,400 in December.
President Biden began a policy in October of immediately expelling more migrants from Venezuela, under public health policy Title 42, while simultaneously creating more legal pathways for them to enter the United States.
He announced an expansion to this policy on Jan. 5, to include migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti.
These migrants and some others can apply for an exemption from Title 42 and a chance to be paroled into the country to seek asylum on the CBP One app, where some migrants can submit their biographical information to Customs and Border Protection and be vetted before arriving at a port of entry.
βThe app cuts out the smugglersβ
βThe new border enforcement measures kept Februaryβs overall encounter numbers nearly even with January,β said CBP Acting Commissioner Troy Miller in a statement. βWe are also encouraged by the new functionality in the CBP One mobile application, which has provided migrants the ability to safely and easily schedule an appointment at a Port of Entry to request a humanitarian exception to the Title 42 public health order.β
Although the new policy and the CBP One app seem to be contributing to efficiency in processing people and a decline in migrants at the border, there have also been problems with the app. These include difficulty capturing the photos of people with darker skin tones; limited availability of appointments; migrants not having continuous WiFi access long enough to enter the required information for themselves and their family members, or lacking a phone where they can download the app; and frequent error messages, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group.
Migrants waiting in Nogales, Sonora, for an opportunity to seek asylum have also had challenges getting an appointment through the app, according to the Kino Border Initiative, a binational migrant-aide organization in Nogales.
Also in February, the Biden administration said the CBP One app would be the main way for asylum seekers to enter the country after Title 42 ends.
βThe app cuts out the smugglers and decreases migrant exploitation,β Miller said. βCBP continues to make improvements to the app to address feedback we have received from stakeholders.β
Crossings shift to ports of entry
The number of migrants from the four countries currently in the program, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua, has decreased overall, from a high of nearly 99,000 in December, nationwide, to almost 36,000 and 38,000 in January and February, respectively.
The number of migrants from those countries who are coming through between ports of entry rather than at a port of entry dropped even more dramatically.
About 2,400 migrants from those four countries were apprehended between ports of entry in February, down from a high of 85,500 in December.
Conversely, the number of migrants from those countries who presented themselves for asylum at a port of entry rose to more than 35,000 from about 13,000 in December.
Likewise, in Arizona, 123 migrants from those four countries were apprehended between ports of entry in February, down from about 14,800 in December. And the number of migrants from those countries who presented themselves for asylum at a port of entry in Arizona rose to about 900 from about 77 in December.
Nationally, during February, the federal government paroled 22,755 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans into the country through the new process.
Haitians seeking to escape from poverty and uncertainty are flocking to the main migration office in the capital Port-au-Prince hoping to get a passport and perhaps their ticket to life in America under a new US immigration program. Under the policy announced by President Joe Biden, the United States will accept 30,000 people per month from Haiti and a handful of other countries mired in crisis, on the condition that they stay away from the overcrowded US border with Mexico and arrive by plane.
