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Border crossers released into the U.S. will soon receive ID cards so the Biden administration can better track them until they are required to appear for their court date, which is most times years after migrants initially arrive to claim asylum.
The new program will also help keep track of the sheer volume of undocumented migrants living in the U.S.
Images of the new ID cards emerged after footage on Monday showed thousands of migrants illegally crossing the Rio Grande River from Piedras Negras into Eagle Pass, Texas. Then, nearly 500 miles away in El Paso, Texas, a similar surge was experienced with 1,700 migrants crossing in a 24-hour period.
Republicans feel the program is just another way for President Joe Biden to welcome illegal immigrants rather than deport them.
The ICE Secure Docket card will include an Immigration and Customs Enforcement logo, an image of the migrant, along with a QR code and identifying information found on a typical license or identification document.
A look at the proposed ICE Secure Docket cards for a pilot rollout of a new program aimed at keeping better track of undocumented migrants released into the U.S.
While the program is still in development, migrants continue to arrive in droves at the southern border between ports of entry. Pictured: Approximately 600 migrants arrived at the border on Wednesday by freight train and moved through the streets of Ciudad, Juarez to cross into the U.S. in El Paso, Texas
Additionally, the cards will include ‘cutting-edge’ security features, according to ICE, with the intended purpose of improving ‘current, inconsistent paper forms that often degrade rapidly.’
While the program is still in development phases, Fox News obtained images of the proposed ICE Secure Docket cards.
Reports last year emerged of the ICE Secure Docket Card program with the hope to ‘modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card.’
Currently, migrants who arrive illegally and are not removed from the country are released into the U.S. are given several documents. The new program will seek to digitize everything and provide migrants with only an ID card to keep track of.
In addition to providing them with proper identification, the ICE Secure Docket cards would also be used by migrants to check-in and schedule reporting meetings with ICE.
The cards could also be used for easy and quick identification by enforcement officials – and could provide information like whether the migrants are deportable or not.
Some Republicans, however, are concerned with the new program. They see it as Biden and his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas prioritizing welcoming illegal border crossers rather than removal.
‘Americans and migrants are dying every day as a result of this Administration’s open borders,’ Trump-era CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan lamented to DailyMail.com
‘What’s their response?’ he questioned. ‘Secure the border? Enforce the law? Protect the American people from fentanyl pouring across the border?’
‘Nope. Instead, let’s provide those who are violating the rule of law, and adding to the instability our borders, official government documents! Rather than deter the flow of illegal immigration, [they] make it easier to expedite their release into the country following their illegal entry.’
Migrants wait under the International Bridge II in Eagle Pass, Texas on Wednesday after illegally crossing into the U.S. across the Rio Grande River
The program follows the roll-out this year of the CBP One app, which allows migrants to apply online to schedule a time when they can enter the country at legal ports of entry to make asylum claims.
While the app helped quell for a short time the shocking images of illegal crossings at the border, there has been another uptick over the last few months of migrants crossing between ports of entry.
The crossings resulted in the El Paso port of entry with Mexico shutting down while personnel were diverted to assist with processing the massive surge of illegal migrants who arrived between entry ports in Texas.
In a Friday statement, Custom and Border Protection (CBP) announced ‘temporary suspension’ at the busy Bridge of the Americas (BOTA) port shared between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
There was no specification in the statement on when the port will return to normal operation, just a note that CBP would do so ‘as quickly as feasible.’
‘The temporary suspension at BOTA will allow CBP’s Office of Field Operations officers to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in processing noncitizens who have arrived between the ports of entry including vulnerable populations like families and unaccompanied children,’ CBP said in the Friday statement.
The statement continued: ‘CBP regularly plans for and executes contingency measures, such as this, to support the overarching agency mission and ensure the safety and wellbeing of those in the agency’s custody.’
