The Biden administration is telling Americans to prepare for a “chaotic” period at the southern border, as the U.S. faces a potentially historic migrant surge at the southern border with the ending of Title 42 — with officials saying that it will be a while before the plan to cope with the surge shows results.
Title 42, the public health order that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ended on Thursday night with the ending of the COVID-19 national emergency. In the days leading up to the order’s end, agents have been encountering historic levels of over 10,000 migrants a day – with authorities already preparing for releases of migrants without court dates onto the streets.
The Biden administration has repeatedly touted a wide-ranging plan that includes stiffening Title 8 penalties, an asylum rule to make those who enter illegally ineligible for asylum, cooperation with Mexico and a surging of resources and personnel to the border.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS BIDEN ADMIN FROM RELEASING MIGRANTS WITHOUT COURT DATES AS TITLE 42 EXPIRES
However, even with that in place, top administration officials — including the president — have painted a gloomy picture of what lies ahead in the coming days.
“It’s going to be chaotic for a while,” President Biden told reporters on Tuesday, even as he touted international cooperation with countries like Mexico.
On Wednesday, he made similar remarks as he urged Congress to provide more funding.
“Well, we’ve had chaos at the border for a number of years,” the president said before boarding Air Force One. “We have to fully fund the border security effort.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has painted similarly grim pictures in the days leading up to the end of Title 42. Mayorkas has also appealed to Congress for more funding and an immigration reform package.
“I have said for months and months that the challenge at the border is and is going to be very difficult. And we have spoken repeatedly about the fact that that difficulty may actually only increase at this time of transition,” he said in a White House briefing Thursday.
“It is going to take a period of time for our approach to actually gain traction and show results,” he warned.
BORDER PATROL CHIEF AUTHORIZES RELEASE OF MIGRANTS INTO US WITHOUT COURT DATES AS TITLE 42 ENDS
Mayorkas, who has adamantly refused to describe the situation at the border as a “crisis,” was asked what Americans should expect in the coming days. He noted that Border Patrol facilities are already packed as agents encounter over 10,000 migrants a day.
“We could see very crowded — as we are now — we could see very crowded Border Patrol facilities. I cannot overstate the strain on our personnel and our facilities,” he said.
“But we know how to manage through such strain. As difficult as it will be, I have tremendous confidence and pride in our personnel,” he added.
He also sought to blame Congress, saying that it had failed to fix what he called a “broken” immigration system.
“The fundamental reason why we have a challenge at our border, and we’ve had this challenge many a time before is because we are working within the constraints of a broken — a fundamentally broken immigration system. And we also are operating on resources that are far less than those that we need and that we’ve requested,” he said.
Separately, he has also been issuing stern warnings to migrants thinking of coming across. In a video posted as the order ended, Mayorkas said “we are ready to process and swiftly remove people without a legal basis to remain in the U.S.”
That message was undercut by the revelation that Border Patrol is planning to release migrants onto the streets without court dates if they face overcrowding. That policy was quickly challenged by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.
The administration responded with its predictions of chaos, warning that it could have up to 45,000 people in custody by the end of the month if it was blocked by the use of parole.
“An order restricting DHS’s parole authority on the eve of this crisis has the serious potential to cause chaos and undermine the security of the border and the safety of border officials,” the administration argued.
However, just hours away from the end of Title 42, the use of parole was blocked by a federal judge, who dismissed the “doomsday rhetoric” from the administration, arguing it was a crisis of its own making.
In a response to the order, Customs and Border Protection warned that the ruling was “harmful” that will result in unsafe overcrowding and “undercut[s] our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for Border Patrol agents and migrants.”