Thousands of migrants are being fast tracked into the U.S. under the Biden administration, which is making it easier for them to bypass typical waiting periods to get work authorizations.
The Department of Homeland Security has a new CBP One phone app that’s allowing migrants to almost immediately apply for a work authorization, thereby bypassing the former wait time that was required before they could apply.
Migrants who end up entering America by using the CPB One app are allowed to immediately apply for documents that give them employment authorization, which ultimately allows them to work legally in the country.
From January through July, federal data shows that almost 190,000 migrants scheduled entry appointments through the CBP One system, at the multiple entry ports at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Many Democratic lawmakers have been urging the Biden administration to expedite the work permit process so that the overwhelming number of migrants who have been entering their states can start to work.
An official in the Biden administration recently spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation and said that any migrant who doesn’t use the CBP one system, or who enters the U.S. illegally and tries to file a claim for asylum, has to wait 150 days before they can apply for a permit to work. Then, there’s another 30-day waiting period if they’re approved before they’ll actually receive the permit.
The White House has said that of all the migrants who are working age and who have used the CBP One system to enter the country, 16% have also applied for an authorization to work.
While this process does make it easier for migrants to start working legally, there are some experts who believe the process actually encourages more migrants to enter the U.S. illegally.
One such person is Lora Ries, the former DHS acting deputy chief of staff, who served in the Trump administration. She told the DCNF recently that illegal immigration hasn’t slowed down at the southern border, even with this new program in place.
In June, there were about 99,000 encounters between border agents and illegal immigrants. That number exceeded 132,000 for July and then 177,000 for August.
As Ries, who now works for The Heritage Foundation as its director of the Border Security and Immigration Center, said:
“That’s all that these aliens want is work authorization. They don’t care about getting asylum protection. They don’t care about getting some other document.
“I will say illegal aliens want five things: they want to enter the U.S., they want to stay here, they want to work here, they want to send money home and they want to bring family here.
“And this administration is letting them enter, letting them stay and letting them work.”
The Biden administration is even helping some regions, such as New York, ease the burden that they’re facing with the surge of migrants they have experienced. The White House has pledged to help these migrants who are eligible to go through the application process to receive a work permit.
