The Biden Team Struggled to Implement New Immigration Policies Due to Poor Interagency Coordination

The Biden administration failed to coordinate the implementation of two new immigration policies in 2021, according to a new report that found the lack of preparation led to significant operational challenges. 

As the Border Patrol apprehended 1.7 million individuals illegally entering the country between ports of entry in fiscal 2021—a 300% increase over the previous year—the Homeland Security Department rolled out new initiatives to help agents process the migrants faster. But officials did so without talking to employees at the department components and the field staff involved in the new approach, leaving those implementing it scrambling to handle the fallout. Field offices were overwhelmed, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report, and agencies were left unable to provide their normal oversight of the immigration process. 

Through a policy known as Title 42, which the Trump administration first implemented during the COVID-19 outbreak, many undocumented migrants arriving at the border are immediately turned away. Some are not quickly expelled, however, and the Border Patrol must process them. Because the number of migrants spiked and normal processing—which includes placing those individuals into the immigration court system for removal proceedings—takes more than two hours, Customs and Border Protection created a new program to quickly give family units a “notice to report” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The families were released into the country and would only enter into the court system once they reported to ICE. 

Border Patrol agents still conducted interviews and collected biometric data, but that whole process took only 30 minutes. 

CBP headquarters conceptualized the policy without consulting ICE or leaders at the Southwest border. Field staff received the policy and had to implement it the next day, GAO said. Problems with the policy quickly began to surface. Border Patrol agents did not give the families a specific ICE office to report to, making it difficult to track whether they actually showed up. The agents were also supposed to collect the addresses where the families would wind up, but failed to do so in 60% of cases. 

The policy also led to as many as 500 immigrants reporting to a single ICE office per day, well over its capacity. Some field offices became so crowded, GAO said, families that reported to them were never recorded as having done so. ICE officials said they lacked the space and personnel to address the workload typically conducted by Border Patrol and their staff could not balance the new responsibilities with their normal duties. 

A few months later, CBP introduced another policy to allow families to quickly enter the country with “parole” status. Heads of households were entered into alternatives to detention programs, which typically includes electronic monitoring. Those individuals received “A-numbers” to formally enter them into the immigration system. 

The second policy was aimed at addressing some of the shortfalls of the first and was coupled with online ICE appointment scheduling, CBP digitization when transferring families to ICE and a renewed emphasis on cataloging full and correct addresses. While ICE still reported having its resources stretched, GAO found the process went more smoothly. CBP eventually phased out the “notice to report” program in November 2021. 

Ultimately, 93,000 family unit members were admitted into the country under “notice to report.” While officials expressed concern the policy created an honor system for the immigrants to report for ICE, most did show up. Under the initial policy, 78% families reported. Under the parole system, 75% of those admitted into the country have reported. ICE has initiated removal proceedings for more than half of the family unit members admitted under the two policies. 

The Border Patrol increasingly used the parole program for families this past spring, GAO found, leading CBP in July to instruct staff to limit its use. ICE offices said they were still seeing significantly more immigrants reporting to their offices than they could process, leading CBP to promise to tackle half of the new workload. 

The lack of preparation and coordination echoed similar issues that arose during the Trump administration, when DHS repeatedly faced criticism for its failures to properly plan for and communicate sudden changes in its immigration policies. 

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who requested the GAO report, said it showed the Biden administration was simply shifting its burdens around without actually tackling the problem. 

“The Biden Administration solution of just processing people into the country faster is creating more chaos and is releasing thousands of people into the country without legal status and without any known criminal history,” said Lankford, who called it foolish to trust immigrant families to report to ICE. 

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called the policies an “abject failure,” pointing to the roughly one-in-four individuals who failed to report. 

“Instead of propping up ineffective programs that exacerbate the problem, the Biden administration should work with Congress to actually fix this issue and relieve the immense burden this crisis has placed on border communities,” Cornyn said. 

GAO found that Homeland Security, CBP and ICE have all either implemented or are developing new policies to better prepare for future upticks in migrant arrivals at the Southwest border.