The Biden administration is reportedly gravely concerned that walking back a Trump-era pandemic policy that enabled the Border Patrol to turn away most illegal immigrants immediately could prompt a “mass migration event.”
Department of Homeland Security intelligence indicates 25,000 migrants waiting just south of the U.S.-Mexico border could rush to get across in April, when the Biden administration is set to meet with Mexico about stopping expulsions under what is called Title 42, according to Axios. Such a surge would only add to the existing border crisis.
An average of 5,000 to 7,000 noncitizens have been encountered attempting to cross illegally each day over the past year, far beyond the 1,000 that the Obama administration had said would constitute a crisis.
The DHS is specifically concerned that Mexican cartels that charge migrants to get them into the United States will take advantage of the forthcoming change in border policy and attempt to push as many people into the country as possible, knowing that the U.S. will not turn non-Mexican citizens away.
The policy in question was rolled out in March 2020, when the Trump administration invoked Title 42 of the Public Health Service Act of 1944. It gave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the ability to deny the admission of goods and people who pose a risk of spreading a communicable disease. Since that time, U.S. officials have expelled people 1.6 million times, though some were turned away more than once.
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Immigrant activists and Democrats have pushed President Joe Biden to end the policy over the past 14 months, saying it bars migrants seeking asylum from getting the chance to make a claim because most are turned back to Mexico. The expulsions mean those who illegally cross the border cannot be detained and thus referred for prosecution and face a consequence, which serves as a deterrent.
In preparation for a potential mass crossing event this spring, the U.S. government has set up a sort of war room that brings federal agencies under one roof to respond to any such event. The Southwest Border Coordination Center is part of the DHS’s Southwest Border Mass Irregular Migration Contingency Plan, as the effort is being called.
The DHS has also begun to ask employees from nonimmigration agencies to volunteer for the department’s surge force of personnel willing to help at the border. Such a surge force was first used in 2017 amid the historic hurricane season and brought in employees from nonemergency agencies to assist with recovery efforts.
“Of course the Administration is doing our due diligence to prepare for potential changes at the border,” White House spokesman Vedant Patel told Axios.
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U.S. Marshals Service aircraft and U.S. Bureau of Prisons buses are on a list of items that the Biden administration may call in to help transport migrants away from the border and to holding facilities nationwide. During a smaller influx of migrants in 2019, the Trump administration transported migrants to immigration facilities nationwide for processing and detention because it lacked the building space in southern border states.
