Internal Documents Show the Biden Admin Plans to Send Migrants to Cities Deeper Inside U.S. As They Await Court Dates

According to internal papers acquired by NBC News, the Department of Homeland Security is planning to move immigrants awaiting hearings away from U.S. towns near the southern border further into the nation, beginning with Los Angeles in the coming weeks. The idea would relieve border congestion, as record numbers of illegal border crossers have overloaded shelter capacity in certain towns, forcing Customs and Border Protection to release migrants on the street to fend for themselves.

After being released from CBP custody, migrants who are allowed to stay in the country and file asylum applications are usually placed in shelters provided by religious and humanitarian groups. The migrants then pay for flights and bus transportation to places where they would appear before immigration judges to have their asylum requests heard.

The new plan would transfer migrants to shelters in towns around the country before heading to their final destinations, using government cash. They will be shipped to Albuquerque, Houston, Dallas, and other places in addition to Los Angeles. In anticipation of relocating migrants, the Department of Homeland Security is collaborating with shelters in each of the cities. The endeavor is being coordinated by the agency’s Southwest Border Coordination Center, which includes officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CBP, and other agencies.

DHS officials have reportedly dubbed the strategy the “Abbott plan,” alluding to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s choice to bus migrants from Texas to Washington, D.C., to bring the migrant crisis to the attention of the nation’s political leaders. DHS is now following Abbott’s lead and paying for buses and planes on its own to reduce overcrowding. Many migrants have taken advantage of the free 30-hour bus travel to Washington to get closer to their eventual destinations on the East Coast. 

However, one DHS representative stated that “no decision has been made” about moving migrants to interior cities but “should a decision be made, DHS will continue to closely coordinate with and support cities and NGOs to facilitate the movement of any individual encountered at the Southwest border who is placed into removal proceedings pending the next steps in their immigration proceedings.”

While a Covid-19 public health directive known as Title 42, that has expelled many asylum-seekers since 2020, remains in effect, fewer than half of migrants were ejected under the order in April, the most recent month for which statistics are available. That month, CBP apprehended 234,088 migrants, a monthly high; with some migrants having attempted to cross multiple times.

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