As Trump closes the border, unauthorized migrants surge at U.S. airports

President Trump may have cooled the U.S.-Mexico boundary but the latest data shows unauthorized migrants are now surging into America’s interior.

They’re known in DHS-speak as “inadmissibles,” and they show up at airports and seaports without fully valid paperwork.

Their numbers have more than doubled in recent months, from about 8,500 in August and September to more than 19,000 in January, the latest data available.

That’s still well below the peak of the Biden era, when Customs and Border Protection would regularly record more than 50,000 inadmissible migrants showing up at airports, hoping to win a quick catch-and-release through “parole.”

Analysts at the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse said the new surge coincides once again with a major jump in parole.

“When a noncitizen arrives at a port of entry — whether by air, sea, or land — and does not have a visa or other proper documents allowing them to enter the U.S. (an “inadmissible”), port authorities need to decide how the person should be handled,” TRAC wrote in an analysis.

They can put them through a speedy deportation, serve them notice for a more lengthy deportation court battle, or parole them, which allows them to be in the U.S. despite lacking a legal visa. That last option is now the most common.

“Parolees now comprise a record-breaking 61.5 percent of all inadmissibles,” TRAC said.

Mark Morgan, who served as acting commissioner at CBP in the first Trump administration, said there’s not enough public data to say for certain what’s happening.

“We don’t have enough analysis to tell us if it’s time for concern. But if it continues and especially if it spreads to other areas, then alarm bells should be going off,” he said.

He said the new Trump administration has sharply curtailed the border chaos, but dangers still lurk.

“The cartels haven’t simply walked away from a multibillion-dollar human smuggling business — they’re playing the long game just as they have before. Nor will immigrants from across the globe cease to attempt to come to the U.S. if they believe there is the slightest chance they will be granted access into the country and be free from deportation,” Mr. Morgan said.

Andrew “Art” Arthur, a former immigration judge and now a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said some of the surge is would-be illegal immigrants with financial means. They board airplanes under either legitimate or bogus passports, then ditch their authentic identities and arrive in the U.S. asking for asylum.

But he said the larger number of the new parolees likely came on temporary student or work visas, but the port officers had questions about the documentation. They are marked as inadmissible and are paroled and told to come back with documents to clear up the issues.

Chinese and Indian migrants have led the new surge. Mr. Arthur said they are heavily represented among student visa and temporary work visa applicants.

He said the total numbers are low enough that they aren’t worrying.

“That’s a traditional flow and the system can deal with that,” he said. “It’s 200,000 people at the southwest border we can’t handle.”

The Washington Times sought comment from CBP for this story.

While the southern boundary drew most of the attention during the Biden administration, airports were also a nexus for the migrant surge.

Under Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the government created special “parole” programs that allowed people from Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the U.S. without a visa as long as they alerted the government to their intention to travel.

At the peak, 30,000 people a month were allowed to fly into airports under the program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

Meanwhile, at the southwestern border as many as 50,000 more unauthorized migrants showed up at the border crossings and 250,000 others were caught by Border Patrol agents as they snuck across.

Those numbers have plummeted under Mr. Trump.

In January, agents caught just 6,070 people sneaking in, and port officers at the southern border encountered just 3,656 other unauthorized migrants.

At the northern border, agents arrested just 489 people in January, while port officers encountered 3,772.

Mr. Morgan said the numbers aren’t a reason for complacency.

“We’ve seen this movie before. During the first Trump administration, we saw the numbers plummet to then-historic lows. The cartels waited patiently,” he said. “When they figured out Congress had failed to make any substantive changes, the numbers began to skyrocket. Why? Because they realized, despite the tough rhetoric coming from the White House, the reality was catch and release, especially for families, was still in place.”

To change the calculus, Mr. Morgan said, Mr. Trump must follow through on his promise of mass deportation. And he said that can’t mean just focusing on the “worst of the worst.”

“If we tell the world, along with those who are already here illegally, as long as you don’t commit another crime, you will never be a priority for removal, it will act as a perpetual incentive for more to come, and those who are here to resist voluntary departure,” Mr. Morgan said.