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New statistics about the millions of migrants released into the United States under President Joe Biden pose a concern for him as he turns to his reelection in 2024.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released more than 2.3 million migrants into the U.S. at the southern border under the Biden administration, The Washington Post reported, citing data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.
Mass releases of migrants are typically a final resort when border agents do not have the personnel or capacity to process migrants using normal procedures, the newspaper noted.
While the number is significantly less than the more than 6 million migrants taken into CBP custody during the same period, the data is likely to bolster criticism of Biden by Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, and other Republicans on the campaign trial.
Biden has also faced criticism from Democrats over his administration's policies regarding the southern border.
Biden "is staggeringly vulnerable on the immigration question" ahead of the 2024 election, said Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London.
"While the causes of the current dysfunction aren't entirely his fault, and politics on both sides of the aisle make 'comprehensive' reform next to impossible, the sitting president is always going to take the blame for a surge in undocumented immigration," Gift told Newsweek.
"With increasing numbers of center-left governors and mayors, even outside border states, expressing dissatisfaction over the White House's handling of immigration, the issue could prove even more of a liability for Biden heading into 2024."
On Friday, Biden hit out at congressional Republicans who he said have refused to consider his plan to "completely overhaul" the "broken immigration system."
"They rejected my recent request for an additional $3.5 billion to secure the border and funds for 2,000 new asylum personnel and personnel and 100 new immigration judges so people don't have to wait years to get their claims adjudicated, which they have a right to make a claim legally," he said.
"And the failure to pass and fund this comprehensive plan has increased challenges that we're seeing at our southwest border."
The president said that until Congress takes action, his administration is "going to work to make things better at the border using the tools that we have available to us now."
Newsweek has contacted the Biden and Trump campaigns for comment via email.
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About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more