The end is nigh – at least as far as Title 42 is concerned. The Trump-era regulation that allowed Border Control officials to refuse entry to illegal immigrants for health concerns during the COVID pandemic ends tonight, May 11, at midnight, and already southern border states are feeling the pain. Patrols have apprehended more than 9,000 migrants during just a three-day period, which is an increase from the 5,200 average in March. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told Daily Wire on May 8 that, aside from the 9,000-per-day apprehensions, they have tallied more than 7,000 gotaways who were seen but not caught. On May 9, more than 11,000 migrants were caught crossing the southern border.
And Title 42 has not even officially ended yet.
Release Them to Make Room for Others
The Daily Caller obtained an internal ICE memo that instructed Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) personnel to “take such action to clear bed space to accommodate the surge in migrants crossing the southern border when Title 42 ends.” It further stated that ERO should begin “increasing available bed space by rapidly releasing noncitizens who received positive credible fear determinations* and focusing detention efforts on noncitizens who are subject to mandatory detention.”
Former ICE chief of staff and current director of investigations at the Center for Immigration Studies Jon Feere told the Daily Caller this is something that should have been done a while ago:
“This administration should have been building bed space for the last two years. Instead, they’ve chosen to reduce bed space and are now going to be releasing illegal aliens into the U.S. to temporarily accommodate new illegal aliens arriving into the U.S. But because of the sheer numbers, those individuals will undoubtedly be released soon as well.”
Texas Prepares for End of Title 42
The Lone Star State, already a hotbed for illegal crossings, has been actively seeking out migrants in El Paso. The Washington Examiner reported local, federal, and state police started working jointly 72 hours in advance to sweep the downtown area for those who have slipped into the zone undetected. Many of these aliens have “set up residence on the streets and turned city blocks into slums,” the outlet explained. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a statement, saying: “Immigration enforcement agents will process individuals for vetting and placement into Title 42 expulsion or Title 8 removal proceedings, as applicable. Noncitizens who pose a threat to national security or public safety will be transferred to ICE for detention.”
Two senior CBP officials told The Examiner the operation would be a “serious, calculated move, with federal agents and officers taking significant safety precautions for fear of a hostile pushback from those on the street.” One source told the outlet:
“Absolutely, we’re going to wear riot gear. We’re taking every precaution necessary. These guys will take you hostage. They’re capable of anything.”
There are about 2,500 immigrants, mostly males from Venezuela, “sprawled across several blocks surrounding Sacred Heart Church” in El Paso. Authorities believe the migrants are there because the church is giving them illegitimate forms that say they can be in the United States even though they haven’t been processed by CBP. Sun City already has a serious homeless problem, which is only becoming worse with so many undocumented pouring into the area.
Law enforcement told The Examiner that there are “confirmed incidents of daily prostitution and drug distribution” and that they “were especially concerned about the criminal element.” Some of the homeless include “confirmed members of Tren de Aragua, a gang that emerged from a Venezuelan prison in Tocoron.” One official warned:
“MS-13 has absolutely nothing on them. Once they get their resources in all of these big cities — you think crime is bad right now. Just wait.”
But not everyone is happy with the roundup of illegals before Title 42 dissolves. The National Border Patrol Council tweeted: “Nothing like publicly announcing that dangerous people will be arrested, while warning them ahead of time exactly where to run and hide to avoid arrest. This entire operation is a sad joke – another pandering PR stunt. Serious law enforcement leaders don’t behave this way.”
Biden’s Immigration Plans Harsher Than Trump’s?
(Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Now that President Joe Biden has officially announced his campaign for re-election, illegal immigration and the disaster that has befallen the border states since he took the Oval Office must be a top priority to boost his less-than-stellar poll numbers. After lambasting his predecessor’s treatment of immigrants along with his fellow Democrats, the commander-in-chief is now being accused of instituting harsher policies than Trump’s.
Just one day before Title 42 was scheduled to end, Biden’s newest regulation went into effect. Under this rule, migrants seeking asylum will not be eligible if they can’t prove that they previously requested protection in a third country; “it will disqualify most non-Mexican migrants who enter the U.S. between ports of entry from asylum,” CBS News explained.
The rule is expected to be challenged in a federal court, with many claiming it is even worse than Trump’s Title 42 and other policies aimed at stemming illegal immigration and asylum seekers. As CBS wrote:
“If upheld, the Biden administration’s rule will cement a growing bipartisan rejection of the asylum laws that Congress enacted in 1980 to conform with international treaties designed to prevent nations from turning away refugees to places where they could be persecuted, as the U.S. did to some Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.”
Title 42 allowed border officials to cite public health concerns to reject migrants without hearing their asylum claims. “[T]he new rule is, in many ways, a tougher policy,” CBS explained. “Because migrants expelled under Title 42 did not face immigration or criminal penalties, the measure encouraged some to make repeated border crossing attempts.”
While there are some exemptions for severe cases, those who can’t prove eligibility are expected to be quickly deported. They also face a five-year banishment from the United States, and any who try to re-enter could face criminal prosecution and jail time, according to the Biden administration.
When former President Donald Trump tried similar policies, Biden highly objected to them as being inhumane. During one of the 2020 presidential debates, Biden said Trump is “the first president in the history of the United States” to declare that “anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country.” But when it comes to his policy, the president said the administration’s approach is different because there are exemptions and “channels for migrants to enter the U.S. with legal permission,” CBS asserted.
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Andrea Flores served as a White House border official during Biden’s first year in office, but she disagrees with the new rule. “It is a profound shift for a Democratic president to implement a new ban on asylum-seekers,” she said. “It’s evidence that the past decade of far-right attacks on Black and brown asylum seekers [has] significantly weakened the Democratic Party’s commitment to providing refuge to people fleeing persecution and torture.” The American Civil Liberties Union, which took Trump to task for his administration’s “transit ban,” also stands against the regulations. Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s top immigration lawyer, told CBS: “We will sue as we did under Trump. The core illegality is the same.”
US National Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall met on May 9 in Mexico City with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the two announced a joint commitment to expand “legal pathways” of entry into the United States. The departments of Homeland Security and State said they were opening processing centers in “key locations throughout the Western Hemisphere to reduce irregular migration and facilitate safe, orderly, humane, and lawful pathways from the Americas.” The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, with the first centers to open in several countries, including Colombia and Guatemala. Obrador said the two countries have already “achieved a 95 percent reduction in arrivals of undocumented people – of the nationalities included in the program – at our shared border.”
But, as Just the News pointed out:
“However, CBP data contradicts this claim, with nearly 270,000 apprehensions and gotaways reported at the southwest border alone in March. Likewise, thousands have already arrived in El Paso, prompting the city to declare a state of emergency ahead of the U.S. Title 42 public health authority ending May 11. Roughly 40,000 people are waiting in Mexico to initially enter El Paso, its mayor said, with more expected to follow.”
The end of Title 42 is nigh, but the United States is ill-prepared to handle such a massive influx of people doing whatever they can to cross.
*A credible fear determination is an assessment tool that ask whether the person claiming asylum is, in fact, facing actual threat in their country of origin.
