Border Timeline

March 28, 2024 Border Timeline

Border Crisis Timeline: Harris's Policies are the "Root Cause"

Kamala Harris's Open-Border Policies are the "Root Cause"


2021

2022

2023

  • January 5: The Harris-Biden administration announced its intention to give two-year work permits to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants per month who have no basis for legal immigration.
  • January 8: Biden finally made his first trip to the border – a “tightly controlled visit“ criticized as nothing more than a “dog and pony show.”
  • January 12: The Harris-Biden administration offered work permits and deportation deferrals to 2,000 Somali immigrants under Temporary Protection Status (TPS).
  • January 20: CBP announced there were more than 250,000 illegal crossings at the southern border in December 2022, breaking the record for the worst month in DHS history.
  • February 23: Reporting revealed that more Chinese nationals were crossing the San Diego border than Mexican nationals.
  • February 25: The New York Times discovered that the Harris-Biden administration lost track of more than 85,000 children after responding to the administration's demands to “move the children quickly out of shelters“ by rolling back important vetting and safeguard procedures.
  • March 8: A federal judge blocked the Harris-Biden administration from using humanitarian parole and “alternatives to detention” – otherwise known as “catch and release” – to mass release migrants into the country.
  • April 19: Mayorkas claimed “we are doing so very much to gain operational control” of the southern border.
  • May 9: The Harris-Biden administration authorized Border Patrol to begin the mass release of migrants into American cities if NGOs don’t have the capacity to hold them.
  • May 11: The Harris-Biden administration let Title 42 expire.
  • May 11: A federal judge blocked the Harris-Biden administration from implementing a policy allowing for the release of migrants without court dates.
  • June 20: CBP announced more than 204,000 illegal immigrants were encountered at the southern border in May, the second highest total for May in 22 years and a 337 percent increase over May encounters from 2017 – 2020.
  • June 23: The Supreme Court ruled that the Harris-Biden administration could continue setting priorities on which illegal immigrants to arrest and which to release.
    • Louisiana and Texas argued that the Harris-Biden administration's failure to arrest a significant number of illegal migrants has forced the states to jail or provide social services to people who should have been encountered.
  • July 7: The Harris-Biden administration added Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to the list of countries approved for family reunification parole.
    • Those approved for family reunification parole can fly straight into the interior of the country, bypassing the border.
  • July 18: The Harris-Biden administration unilaterally paroled over half a million illegal immigrants using a 1950s law in an “unprecedented” way.
  • July 24: The Harris-Biden administration sued Texas over floating barriers placed in the Rio Grande to prevent illegal border crossings into Texas.
  • August 8: Border Patrol leadership set daily “bookout” targets to keep the number of migrants in custody manageable – including potentially increasing releases into the U.S. interior.
    • An internal CBP email read, “We respectfully request that you urgently use these bookout targets to formalize your daily processing pathway plans, to include transitioning to NTA/OR when consequence pathways are not sufficient.”
  • August 31: Karine Jean-Pierre: “The president has done more to secure the border and to deal with this issue of immigration than anybody else. He really has!”
  • September 6: A federal judge ordered Texas to remove the floating barriers in the Rio Grande after the Harris-Biden administration sued the state.
  • September 12: Mayorkas: The actions of Harris and Biden on immigration are “a model approach that has proven to work.”
  • September 16: Border Patrol separated migrant children from their parents for several days to avoid overcrowding.
  • September 20: The Harris-Biden administration offered deportation deferrals and work permits to nearly 500,000 Venezuelan immigrants.
  • September 21: Records obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies showed that between October 2022 and September 2023, the administration approved 221,456 Venezuelans, Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans to fly straight into the interior of the United States, bypassing the border.
  • September 22: CBP reported that 232,972 illegal immigrants were encountered at the southern border in August, which marked the highest number for August on record.
  • September 28: Biden failed to visit the border during a trip to Arizona despite invitations from local officials in border communities.
  • October 21: With 2.5 million encounters along the southern border, FY 2023 set a new record for illegal border crossings.
  • October 23: CBP announced more than 269,000 illegal immigrants were encountered along the southern border in September, which set a new record for the month.
  • October 31: Mayorkas could not give a straight answer when asked if terrorists affiliated with Hamas and Hezbollah had crossed the southern border illegally.
  • December 6: Biden said that a border wall is among “the most draconian actions possible.”
    • Mayorkas said that Republican border solutions, including construction of a border wall, limiting asylum, and limiting the president’s parole powers, are “violence to our fundamental values.”
  • December 12: The Harris-Biden administration said securing the border is an “extreme Republican partisan agenda.”
  • December 18: A record 12,600 migrants were encountered in a single 24-hour period.
  • December 23: CBP announced more than 242,000 illegal immigrants were encountered along the southern border in November, surpassing last year’s record for the highest total in November in DHS history.

2024

  • January 2: The Harris-Biden administration petitioned the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to remove razor wire installed by Texas along the southern border.
  • January 3: The Harris-Biden administration sued Texas over its immigration law that gives local law enforcement in Texas the authority to arrest migrants and judges the ability to issue removal orders.
  • January 19: By his three-year mark, The Harris-Biden administration had taken 535 executive actions related to immigration.
  • January 24: The Supreme Court ruled Border Patrol agents are allowed to remove razor wire Texas had installed to deter crossings along the southern border.
  • January 26: CBP data showed a new all-time high in encounters for illegal border crossings with more than 300,000 in December.
  • January 27: Biden said that he would “shut down the border right now“ if only Congress would let him, despite already having the ability to do so.
  • January 29: Karine Jean-Pierre argued that Republicans have “refused to do anything“ about the border and that Harris and Biden take the border very seriously.
  • January 31: Biden: “I’ve done all I can do. Just give me the power I’ve asked for the very day I got into office. Give me the border patrol, give me the people that judge. Give me the people who can stop this and work rationally.”
    • The same day, DEA announced over 77 million fentanyl pills and more than 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder were seized in 2023, enough to kill every American.
    • Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate, with only 5 to 10 percent being intercepted as border officials struggle to contain the smuggling.
  • February 6: Biden: “The only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
  • February 13: The House impeached Mayorkas for his handling of the border.
  • February 15: A federal watchdog report found the Harris-Biden administration failed to properly vet and monitor the homes where migrant children were placed.
  • February 26: Biden announced a second visit to the border only after Trump had already announced his own visit.

Photo: LUIS TORRES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock