Biden Preparing For Record Levels Of Migrants At Southern Border

Topline

The Biden Administration is reportedly preparing for as many as 14,000 migrants to attempt unauthorized crossings of the southern border every day as soon as next week, when a controversial Covid-era policy aimed at expelling undocumented migrants expires—a potential spike that would add to a two-year surge in asylum seekers at the southern border.

Federal officials are bracing for a surge in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Department of Homeland Security officials believe the spike in border crossings could begin when Title 42—an almost three-year-old policy that lets immigration authorities rapidly expel undocumented migrants from the country based on coronavirus-related public health orders—ends on December 21 due to a court order, Axios reported.

Border communities could see an influx of migrants looking to cross once the hardline policy ends, while several cities, including El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, are already experiencing higher levels of migration as asylum seekers wait for the policy to be lifted, with hundreds of people sleeping on streets, in bus stations and at local airports, NBC News reported.

The possible influx after Title 42 ends would come after border officials apprehended more than 16,000 people last weekend, which was particularly busy, including an average of 2,460 people attempting to cross over three days in El Paso, which has faced the brunt of a recent surge in migrant crossings, according to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Peter Jaquez.

Title 42, which is often used to expel undocumented migrants to their home country or to Mexico within hours, has been heavily criticized by immigration groups for upending migrants’ ability to seek asylum protection and stay in the U.S.—though congressional Republicans have called on it to be extended to address what they consider a crisis overwhelming the border.

Many of the migrants arriving in Texas, however, were Nicaraqua natives, who cannot be rapidly expelled back to Central America or to Mexico like migrants arriving from other countries under Title 42—providing border officials a look at what could be coming if the policy is lifted entirely.

When asked about the end of Title 42 in a press conference on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration is asking Congress for resources to address the border, saying that even after the policy ends, “individuals who attempt to cross the border unlawfully and don’t have a legal basis to remain will be subject to removal.”

Key Background

Arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged over the last two years, with an especially large jump in migration from Central and South America. In the 12-month period ending in September, officials apprehended 2.76 million migrants, well above the 1.96 million apprehended over the same period a year prior, both of which were record years, according to data from Customs and Border Protection. Nearly four-fifths of the people arrested in the 2022 fiscal year were citizens of Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus attributed the rise in border crossings to “failing communist regimes” in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. The Biden Administration attempted to lift Title 42 in May, a move initially blocked by a Louisiana judge, though the administration has frequently turned to the policy first enacted during the Trump Administration to handle rising immigration numbers at the border, using it more than 2 million times to turn migrants away and expanding it to citizens of Venezuela as well as Mexico and some parts of Central America. Last month, a judge struck down the policy as unlawful, setting the stage for it to expire next week.

Chief Critic

Republicans have frequently blamed the influx in migrants on Biden’s decision to loosen some Trump-era immigration rules. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who has come down hard on the Biden Administration’s immigration policies, bemoaned in a tweet that the number of “illegal aliens” that could cross over the southern border if the 14,000 number holds up would be larger than the population of New Orleans, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tweeted that the administration is “ok with utter chaos.” Surprisingly, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has also called for Title 42 to be extended, telling ABC News the state is “about to break” without the policy, “unless we take some responsibility and ownership.”

Tangent

Several Republican governors have reacted to the border surge with controversial initiatives to send migrants on buses from the southern border to northern Democratic-led cities including Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), one of the primary instigators along with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), has said the program is a necessary response to “Biden’s policies,” referring to the surge as an “invasion.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) declared a state of emergency in October in response to the busing program, while in Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) called for assistance from the National Guard in July to handle a “humanitarian crisis.”. Meanwhile, Ducey’s administration constructed a makeshift border wall out of stacked shipping containers, leading the Department of Justice on Wednesday to file a lawsuit accusing Ducey and several other Arizona officials of trespassing on federal lands.

Big Number

728. That’s how many migrants died at the Mexican border last year, according to the International Organization for Migration, which called the border the “deadliest land crossing in the world.” The Department of Homeland Security recorded 748 migrant deaths along the border during the 12 months starting last October.

Biden Preparing For Record Levels Of Migrants At Southern Border—Here’s Why