The Department of Homeland Security is bracing for an increase in immigrant crossings as December 21 approaches, the date when President Joe Biden's administration is due to end controversial Title 42 rule. Instead, the administration will Heading 8 goes.
"The Title 42 public health order remains in effect until December 20, 2022, and until then, DHS will continue to remove single adults and families found at the Southwest border under that authority," the Secretary of Homeland Security said in a statement. National, Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
“However, we know that traffickers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants.
Let me be clear: Title 42 or not, those who cannot establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed,” he added.
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Title 42 was approved by former President Donald Trump in March 2020 to return the majority of asylum seekers at the border, hiding behind the risk posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
A week ago, Biden appealed a federal judge's decision to end the rule, estimating that the ruling could double the daily arrival of asylum seekers.
Hundreds of migrants, mostly from Nicaragua, are released by Customs and Border Protection near a bus station in downtown El Paso, Texas, on December 13, 2022. IVAN PIERRE AGUIRRE / REUTERS
Once Title 42 is no longer in effect, DHS will process people found at the border without proper documents under
Title 8,
which existed before Title 42 and carries significant consequences, including a ban on re-entry of people who are expelled for five years, Mayorkas explained in the statement.
Under this rule, immigrants are often able to apply for asylum,
citing a credible fear of persecution or other threats in their country of origin.
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Mayorkas met Tuesday with local Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Border Patrol officials, as well as local leaders, after more than 2,400 migrants crossed daily into the United States this weekend. USA near El Paso, Texas.
"Over the weekend, the El Paso sector experienced a significant increase in illegal crossings, with a 3-day average of
2,460 daily encounters
, primarily through downtown El Paso," he said on Twitter. Acting Chief Constable Peter Jaquez.
The number of crossing attempts is expected to increase by as much as 2,500 a day when the COVID-19 ban ends, according to DHS officials, and could be as high as 10,000, NBC News reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that it had deployed additional agents to El Paso, alleging that criminal smuggling organizations are behind the influx, though it did not say how many agents it deployed.
DHS is preparing temporary facilities to process the migrants, including in El Paso, as well as discussing with the Mexican government ways to return non-Mexican migrants to Mexico through existing legal mechanisms, two agency officials told the network. CNN.
As reported by NBC News, DHS wants $3 billion from Congress to deal with the surge of immigrants.
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Mayorkas said Tuesday in El Paso that the Biden Administration is exploring expanding a program that allowed Ukrainian and later Venezuelan asylum seekers to apply for entry into the US by air through Mexico City, El Paso reported. Paso Times, and that it is working with Mexico to ensure that the surge of migrants bused into Ciudad Juárez over the weekend does not happen again.
Texas Democratic representative Henry Cuellar urged Biden, in an interview with CNN, to "just show up" at the southern border and insisted that "he's going to be overwhelmed" with the influx of migrants, while the Democratic governor of California manager Gavin Newsom warned in an interview with ABC News Monday that President Biden's plan to reverse Trump's border policies could "break" his state.
More than 2.76 million undocumented migrants crossed the southern border during fiscal year 2022, a number that broke the record reached in 2021 (more than 1 million), according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, for its acronym in English).