The federal agency responsible for tracking millions of migrants released at the southern border under President Biden was essentially working on the honor system — and it didn’t work.
A new audit from the Government Accountability Office found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lost track of at least 70% of migrants the Biden administration paroled at the southwest border in 2024.
ICE’s enforcement arm “relies on the ’honor system’ to ensure noncitizens report to field offices as directed,” the GAO said. “However, ERO officials told us that not all paroled noncitizens report as required.”
The Biden administration released roughly 2 million unauthorized immigrants on parole — a legal mechanism meant for narrow humanitarian exceptions — but CBP paroled 97% of migrants who pre-scheduled arrivals through its app, often without collecting sworn statements or verifying asylum eligibility.
CBP also acknowledged paroling some migrants with criminal records and admitted it had no way of knowing about criminal histories in migrants’ home countries.
Making matters worse, CBP collected tracking data but never shared it with ICE, leaving the two sister agencies operating in the dark.
In 2024 alone, more than 612,000 migrants were paroled at the southwest border. ICE enrolled just 179,000 people in its monitoring program that year.
Read more:
• ICE relied on ’honor system’ to track illegal immigrants from Biden’s catch-and-release
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