The Department of Homeland Security (DHS, for its acronym in English) projects that immigrant arrivals at the border with Mexico could double when Title 42 ceases to be in effect by court order as of December 21.
Federal authorities anticipate that between 9,000 and 14,000 asylum seekers could arrive in the country per day, double the current number, according to an anonymous official source quoted by the CNN news network.
A federal judge ordered in November to eliminate the rule imposed by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 to reject the majority of asylum seekers at the border hiding behind the coronavirus pandemic, which has led some 2.4 million to return at the border of migrants at the border.
Biden wanted to annul the order but another judge prevented him;
he now he must do it in 20 days.
Migrants near Arizona in August 2022.Gregory Bull / AP
Around 6,000 to 7,000 migrants arrive at the border every day amid a wave of mass migration.
In total, almost 2.8 million migrants crossed the border in fiscal year 2022 (which ended in September), a number that broke the record reached in 2021 (more than one million), according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection ( CBP, in English).
In 2019, before Title 42, there were about 6,000 daily arrivals, according to CNN.
[ICE "erroneously" publishes the data of 6,252 asylum seekers on its website]
"As was the case before Title 42 and will continue to be so after, people found at the border who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to prompt removal," a government official told CNN.
New York will open a fourth aid center for migrants seeking asylum
Nov. 30, 202200:25
Fifteen red states have asked a federal judge to keep Title 42 in effect, alleging that lifting this rule will increase migrant arrivals at the border and "directly harm them."
They argued that an increase in arrivals at the border "will impose financial burdens on states that involuntarily host" the migrants.
The Government, for its part, is studying taking measures to avoid or mitigate the exodus that it fears at the border, according to what the news outlet Axios announced on Wednesday, proposals that vary from increasing the legal options to request asylum, promoting legal migration (such as the new program for Venezuelans), to recovering very harsh initiatives from the Trump era, particularly for single adults trying to enter.
[Record of asylum cases granted by the immigration courts: the positive rate and speed rise... with a worrying detail]
One of the proposed proposals would prohibit
single adults
who cross the border illegally from requesting asylum if they have not previously done so through the legal channels offered by the United States or have not requested protection in the other countries through which they passed.
These migrants would be under immediate deportation order.
The measure would consider exceptions for extreme circumstances, although the details of what those would be are unclear, Axios reported.
Another proposal calls for increasing criminal prosecution of single adults who have crossed the border illegally, targeting primarily those who try to evade Border Patrol.
However, one source said it would be difficult for the Justice Department to sell this idea to the public.
Incentives to request asylum
The Biden Administration announced in mid-October new measures to control Venezuelan migration: a program that gives legal status for two years to those who arrive by plane and immediate expulsion of the majority of those who cross the border through Mexico.
These initiatives initially showed positive results, which leads immigration officials to evaluate similar policies before the end of Title 42, federal government sources told Axios.
The number of Venezuelans trying to cross the border has fallen significantly since its implementation, according to the government.
