WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Thom Tillis and his colleagues recently sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland questioning the Administration’s dismissal of asylum cases and highlighting the erosive effect of these policies on the U.S. legal immigration system. 

“We write to you today regarding recent reports of the Biden administration's purported ‘mass amnesty’ for illegal aliens. According to a recent article published by the New York Post on June 2, 2024, the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) detailed the dismissal of over 350,000 removal cases since 2022 under the guise of prosecutorial discretion,” the senators wrote. 

“President Biden’s recent executive order uses 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to purportedly shut down the southern border if illegal crossings surge to a daily average of 2,500 over 7 days. This action is too little, too late, and its numerous exceptions make clear that the Administration is more interested in creating the appearance of an orderly border than stopping illegal crossings. It is also an implicit admission of the administration’s failure to manage the border crisis effectively from the outset,” the senators continued.  

“This Administration’s approach has consistently downplayed the severity of the border crisis, initially denying its existence, then reluctantly acknowledging it, and now attempting to address it through inadequate measures. The repeated failures in border management under your leadership have led to an unprecedented backlog of 3.5 million asylum cases, posing a substantial burden on our immigration system and increasing the risk of criminal activities by illegal aliens,” the senators concluded. 

Text of the full letter is available HERE.

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