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The Biden administration is pondering a new policy that would order unauthorized immigrants to stay in Texas after they arrive, preventing them from spreading throughout the country, according to a new report Thursday.
The goal is to have the migrants be in a better place for eventual deportation, the Los Angeles Times reported. It would also prevent the massive surge of migrants that’s overwhelmed liberal-led cities across the country.
But it would also likely draw howls of protest from both sides of the immigration debate.
Immigrant-rights activists likely would object to limiting migrants’ freedom of movement. Meanwhile, Texas and its allies among conservatives and border-state officials have said the state already has borne the brunt of an immigrant surge that President Biden has invited.
The Los Angeles Times dubbed the policy “remain-in-Texas,” harkening back to the Trump administration’s successful but controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy.
The paper, citing unnamed sources, said the plan would rely on GPS tracking devices assigned to migrants to ensure they stay near the border.
In order to make much of a dent, though, Homeland Security would have to dramatically increase its use of tracking.
As of the end of August the department had just 9,288 migrants fitted with ankle bracelets and 100 with GPS-tracking watches. That is roughly equal to the amount of unauthorized migrants that are encountered entering the country every two days.
Each GPS bracelet costs the government nearly $3 a day. The watches cost $4.50 a day.
The border has repeatedly bedeviled the Biden administration.
When the numbers first started to rise early in 2021, the president said it was seasonal and predicted the numbers would soon tumble. Instead, they got worse.
Earlier this year, after Homeland Security deployed another set of policies designed to encourage illegal immigrants to schedule their arrivals, the numbers shifted and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took a victory lap.
But after a lull, the border chaos has once again expanded, with The Washington Post reporting historically bad numbers for the just-completed month of August.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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