The United States is bracing for a massive surge of migration across its southern border as the COVID-era Title 42 immigration policy is set to expire on Thursday, May 11th, with some Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials warning there are up to 700,000 migrants in Mexico waiting to cross the border illegally.
Title 42, a policy implemented by the Trump administration at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the disease, has been regarded as a legal bulwark against illegal immigration, as it allowed U.S. immigration authorities to immediately return migrants who illegally entered the country without affording them the opportunity to apply for asylum.
Now, with that policy set to expire, every person attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border—whether legally or illegally—will have the right to make an asylum claim, and once the claim is made—no matter how baseless—migrants are released into the interior of the country, where they’re allowed to live until their asylum case is processed.
According to a report from the Washington D.C.-based think tank The Heritage Foundation, the current backlog of 1.5 million asylum claims in the U.S. immigration system means some newly released migrants seeking asylum won’t “get their first appointment for a removal hearing until 2033.”
Bearing this in mind, the end of Title 42—which will bring about a far more relaxed migration policy—is expected to precipitate a giant wave of asylum seekers looking to enter the United States, causing state, local, and federal authorities to brace for the anticipated influx.
Earlier this month, during a visit to southern Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas addressed the expected influx, telling reporters: “We’ve been preparing for quite some time and we are ready. What we are expecting is indeed a surge. And what we are doing is planning for different levels of a surge.”
“The situation at the border is a very serious one, a very challenging one, and a very difficult one,” Mayorkas emphasized.
At the beginning of this month, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott criticized the Biden administration for not renewing Title 42, arguing that the policy’s ending was tantamount to laying out the welcome mat to migrants across the world, and signaling the United States’ borders are wide open. He also said the federal government is expecting up to 13,000 illegal immigrants to cross the U.S.-Mexican border each day after Title 42 expires.
“It will lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally,” the Texas governor said, adding that Biden’s policies would “cause a catastrophic disaster.”
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has touted Title 42 as among his “most successful policies,” has also chimed in on the issue, saying on social media that the country would become “officially, a THIRD WORLD NATION” when the policy expires. He argued that “this date will go down in infamy” and that the U.S. “borders will completely collapse.”
