Since 2022, the Biden administration has closed more than 350,000 asylum cases for foreigners who have entered the United States illegally.

The decision means that instead of granting or denying asylum, the cases are “terminated without a decision on the merits of the asylum claim.” Consequently, the individuals — who the government has deemed to have no criminal record or who are not considered a threat to national security — are removed from the legal system and are no longer required to check in with authorities.

The move allows the migrants to live freely in the United States with no possibility of deportation, effectively allowing them to remain under the radar indefinitely.

“This is just a massive amnesty under the guise of prosecutorial discretion,” Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who now works for the Center for Immigration Studies, tells the New York Post. “You’re basically allowing people who don’t have a right to be in the United States to be here indefinitely.”

However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have reported an increase in crimes committed by such migrants after their asylum cases have been dismissed, the Post reports. This forces agents to restart removal proceedings, which can take years to complete.

In contrast, during the administration of President Trump in 2020, 48,000 migrants were ordered removed from America by immigration court judges, fewer than 20,000 were granted asylum, and 4,700 had their cases closed or were otherwise allowed to remain in the country, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

In 2022, under the Biden administration, a memo issued by Kerry Doyle, the principal legal adviser for the immigration enforcement agency, instructed prosecutors to dismiss cases for migrants who aren’t deemed national security threats, the Post reported. That year saw 36,000 migrants ordered removed, 32,000 granted asylum, and 102,550 cases dismissed or otherwise removed from the books — a tenfold increase compared to 2014.

The trend continued in 2023, with 149,000 cases falling into the latter category. In the current fiscal year of 2024, which ends on September 30, 114,000 cases have already been closed, suggesting a continued increase.

Since Mr. Biden took office, 77 percent of asylum seekers have been allowed to remain in the country, equating to 499,000 out of the 648,000 who applied for asylum during this period, according to TRAC. The backlog of asylum cases currently stands at 3.5 million.