Lehigh Times

In 2021, amid the highest number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States on record, U.S. Border Patrols conducted 1.9 million arrests and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement discovered 900 "ghost flights" filled with undocumented immigrants, including many en route to Harrisburg and Philadelphia.

2021 has been what many have described as an immigration crisis. In Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018-Sept. 30, 2019), Border Patrol made 851,508 arrests; last fiscal year, the number was 1.66 million. The 2021 calendar year surpassed even that. 

There are many factors for the increase of undocumented immigration including the fact that Latin American economies have imploded due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic while the U.S. economy is beginning to recover. Furthermore, the Pandemic continues to leave employers struggling to fill their ranks with domestic labor, making the employment of illegal immigrants an enticing alternative.

Former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who left amid the surge, said that agents believe there's a lack of effort to curb the influx of migrants. "They don't believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel," Scott said.

Republicans have recently filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration alleging that its actions have led to an increase in the number of arrested migrants being kept in the United States. However, documents have shown that around 20% of the migrants arrested were released into the U.S. to await asylum hearings under Biden's use of a public health law known as Title 42. This is down from the 56% of illegal migrants released into the U.S. during a pre-pandemic surge under former President Trump's "Remain in Mexico" policy. 

Sen. Doug Mastriano spoke of the planes that were headed to Pennsylvanian cities. “I think these findings are just the tip of the iceberg,” Mastriano said. “We need to further examine the total number of illegal immigrants being sent to PA by plane and bus. We also need to look at how much this is costing taxpayers and if Gov. Wolf and Attorney General Shapiro were notified of the flights beforehand. Did they decline to inform the public?”

Of the estimated 153,000 immigrants residing illegally in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 34% have come illegally from Mexico and Central America, migrationpolicy.org data show.