By Julia Ainsley - NBC News
The Border Patrol has processed and released more than 6,413 immigrants since Thursday without a court filing date or the ability to monitor them using GPS or cellphone devices. Of those, 2,576 were released after a judge ordered a halt to the practice the next day, court documents revealed Monday.
In an affidavit, David BeMiller, chief of police operations for the Border Patrol, said the agency knew the judge had blocked the release of immigrants under the policy known as "parole with conditions," which allowed border agents to release them without a cut-off date and without the ability to monitor them. if the detention center where they were being held reached its limit.
A Border Patrol agent speaks to migrants before being taken to a camp on March 13, 2023.Mario Tama/Getty Images
But, he said, it was difficult to reverse course because at the time of the court order, 2,576 immigrants who had been fully prosecuted under that policy were waiting to be released. Therefore, they were released under those provisions.
[Ron DeSantis mobilizes hundreds of state National Guard agents to Texas border]
When the court issued the temporary detainer, "all sectors had ceased releasing that day 'non-citizens' who had been fully prosecuted," BeMiller said in his statement. As a result, the Border Patrol on Friday released "'non-citizens' who had been fully processed before the temporary detainer order went into effect."
In addition to those who were released under the "parole with conditions," other immigrants have been released so they could apply for asylum with court filing dates. An administration official said those released to apply for asylum had been fully vetted.
Some 2,000 migrants have been returned to Mexico with the implementation of Title 8
May 16, 202300:58
NBC News was the first outlet to report on the administration's "parole with conditions" policy, which began just before the end of Title 42 last Thursday. Florida cited that article in a lawsuit to keep the policy from going into effect.
The Florida attorney general's office mischaracterized the article in the lawsuit, saying the text indicated immigrants were to be released "en masse." NBC News did not say the immigrants were going to be released that way.
Fewer border crossings
By the time Title 42 expired, the measure had blocked more than 2.5 million border crossings since its imposition in 2020. In the days before it was lifted, the number of immigrants crossing the border began to rise. Experts predicted the number of crossings per day could reach 13,000 or 14,000 after the official end of Title 42. The Biden Administration began enforcing "parole with conditions" on Thursday morning.
'They Take You Out, They Handcuff You': U.S. Deports Thousands After End of Title 42 While Migrant Camps Look Deserted
May 15, 202302:25
Despite those dark forecasts, the number of immigrants crossing the southern border declined Monday for the fourth straight day since the end of Article 42. Just over 3,700 undocumented immigrants were apprehended by the Border Patrol on Monday, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.
Blaz Nunez-Neto, undersecretary for border policy and immigration at the Department of Homeland Security, said 2,400 Mexicans have been sent back home, along with hundreds of Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguanssince the end of Title 42. He added that the department has sent thousands of immigrants back to their countries since the health measure ended.
