The Biden administration plans to expand the number of migrants released into the United States after being detained at the southern border. Unable to keep up with the historically high number of asylum-seekers flooding the border, changes will be made to allow more families and women with children to simply be released from custody. It sounds a lot like the catch and release methods used by the Obama-Biden administration.

The surge of migrants illegally entering the United States at the southern border is causing DHS to scramble in order to find places to house them. Instead of reinstating the Remain-in-Mexico agreement the former administration had with Mexico, the Biden administration is looking into some major changes to the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program. ATD began in 2004 through ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP). It is not a substitute for detention but it allows ICE to supervise illegal immigrants who are not detained. The number of those enrolled in the program is now a priority for DHS. The Biden administration wants to make some changes to make the program more efficient.

Methods of supervision in the ATD program include check-ins at local ICE centers, GPS monitoring (ankle bracelets), and home visits. The participants are going through the immigration process but don’t have legal status in the U.S. The Biden administration has begun releasing migrants without Notices to Appear in court, just notices to appear at their local ICE offices. Meanwhile, DHS continues to gaslight anyone asking about the crisis on the border – the agency says “the border is not open.” Somehow, the thousands of people coming up through Northern Triangle countries haven’t gotten that message.

“The Biden administration has made it clear that the border is not open,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News. “Our policy is to expel single adults and families. In situations where individuals cannot be expelled, they are placed into removal proceedings and a custody determination is made, which could result in an Alternative to Detention program.”

Some family units and single adults are being expelled but not those with young children. Mexico began refusing to take those with young children back after the Biden administration put a halt to the Remain-in-Mexico agreement. This was completely predictable – why should Mexico take any of them back if the Biden administration chooses to turn a blind eye and keep the border open to unaccompanied minors and women with young children? The Biden administration still refuses to even call the crisis a crisis. It’s a “challenge”. Biden’s base of support, the media, is only too happy to accommodate his denial of the reality on the border. For example, Politico is demanding its reporters stop using the word “crisis” when reporting on the border.

Politico is the latest news outlet to order its staff not to use the word “crisis” when reporting on the massive influx of illegal immigrants at the southern border, according to an internal memo obtained by the Washington Examiner. The Beltway publication’s edict, which an official characterized as underscoring earlier guidance from the Associated Press, comes despite President Joe Biden’s own use of the term.

“Avoid referring to the present situation as a crisis, although we may quote others using that language while providing context. While the sharp increase in the arrival of unaccompanied minors is a problem for border officials, a political challenge for the Biden administration and a dire situation for many migrants who make the journey, it does not fit the dictionary definition of a crisis,” the memo from deputy production director Maya Parthasarathy reads. “If using the word ‘crisis,’ we need to ask of what and to whom.”

“This wasn’t a company-wide memo — it was an email to relevant employees sharing AP style guidance — the industry standard — which you can find here,” a spokesperson for Politico told the Washington Examiner.

News organizations assume readers are too stupid to understand what is happening. The leftist media is enabling Joe Biden and his administration to go about their merry way denying that Biden’s own actions produced this humanitarian and public health crisis on the border. Their gaslighting game is strong. Now they are bringing back catch and release by changing the ATD program enough to accommodate the thousands of migrants held in shelters on the border.

This is the latest move by a desperate administration looking to ease the crisis on the border. Sponsors are traveling to pick up unaccompanied minors with taxpayer money, ICE is reserving hotel rooms for migrants and DHS is flying them to states further away from the border. Biden and his administration, along with their mouthpieces in the media, can deny the crisis all they want but it’s real and it is growing. Those making the journey to the southern border don’t believe the border is closed or that they will be returned to their home country. Instead of housing them in shelters or other facilities with supervision, they will be released to freely go about their lives. ICE predicts the ATD program will more than double its participants by June.

“The number of individuals enrolled in the ICE Alternatives to Detention program has increased from 50 per day to 200 per day in March 2021,” an ICE document states. “Within 90 days, the enrollment is projected to double to 400 per day. It is because of this unusual and compelling urgency that the Government requires the [emergency family reception sites] to meet the critical mission requirements of housing, feeding, transporting, and providing medical attention to these thousands of asylum-seeking families along the southwest border.”

Never let a crisis go to waste.