Senators Grassley and Cornyn Introduce Bill to Make Catch-and-Release Data Public

A press release from Sen. Grassley said, “Turn on the TV, flip open the newspaper or simply stop to talk to a local law enforcement officer and you’ll hear a similar story: the border is in a state of chaos. Despite the crisis unfolding in front of our very eyes, the Biden administration is hiding the full facts about the border from the American people. Our legislation would shed much-needed daylight on border statistics so that Congress and the American people can more fully understand the scale of Biden’s border crisis.”

Sen. Cornyn added, “The Biden administration has gone to great lengths to hide record levels of illegal immigration at the southern border, but Americans deserve to know exactly how many migrants are being released into our country. This legislation would shine a bright light on President Biden’s catch-and-release practices and reveal the devastating consequences of this administration’s unlawful actions.”

Currently, the Biden administration’s failed strategy for handling the influx of illegals at the broken border is to funnel them into so-called “parole” programs – release programs that are only intended to be used on a case-by-case basis to allow an individual into the United States on a temporary basis for specific circumstances. Once paroled, migrants are eligible for work authorization in the United States.

However, there is a complete lack of transparency, and very limited publicly available data, to show the total number of people who have been released into the U.S. under these parole programs. There is little data showing if they are making asylum claims before they are released, what screenings, if any,  are taking place, or whether these illegals ever ultimately depart the United States.

The Southern Border Transparency Act would require DHS to fully report on how it is handling migrants encountered at the border, including:

• The number of migrants paroled at each Port of Entry (POE) and in each Border Patrol sector;

• The number of migrants apprehended at each POE and in each Border Patrol sector and how many were granted voluntary departure, placed into expedited removal or simply released into the interior;

• The number of petitions for parole received and granted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS); and

• The total number of migrants paroled into the United States each fiscal year, whether they are granted work authorization and whether they ultimately depart the United States when their parole expires.