The Biden administration’s CBP One phone application allows migrants to immediately apply for work authorization and bypass the required wait time to apply, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under the Biden administration, migrants who enter the U.S. through the CBP One app process can apply immediately for an employment authorization document, which allows them to legally work in the U.S., according to DHS. Between January and July, more than 188,500 migrants scheduled CBP One entry appointments at several ports along the southern border, according to federal data.
The White House has faced pressure from Democratic politicians, who have been urging the administration to expedite work permits to migrants overwhelming their cities and states.
If migrants don’t utilize CBP One and enter the country illegally with an asylum claim, they must wait 150 days to apply for a work permit and an additional 30 days to receive one, a Biden administration official recently told the DCNF. Roughly 16% of working-age migrants who entered the country using CBP One have applied for work authorization, according to the White House.
Former Acting Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security during the Trump administration Lora Ries believes immediate work authorization for migrants only attracts more illegal immigration, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation. With the CBP One program in place, illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border has continued to surge, jumping from roughly 99,000 encounters in June to more than 132,000 in July, followed by more than 177,000 in August.
“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,” Ries, who now serves as the director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In an effort to ease the burden on New York, the Biden administration has pledged to help migrants who are eligible with the work permit application process. Still, officials urge migrants wanting to come to the U.S. to utilize the CBP One process.
“To date, roughly 20% of the noncitizens indicating New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania as their intended destination this year were paroled in following an appointment scheduled through CBP One and are eligible to work immediately, if they apply,” the White House said in a statement regarding a recent meeting with Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose state has cared for roughly 100,000 migrants.
The Biden administration helping New York’s migrants is encouraging more to come, Ries said.
“And so as the mayor and the governor of New York complain about the numbers that they are facing when they demand faster work authorization, it just encourages more illegal immigration,” Ries said.
Jennie Taer on September 3, 2023
