On Tuesday, the Biden administration said it would comply with an expected court order from a Louisiana judge that would block the administration’s revocation of Title 42, a Trump-era border security policy.
The Biden administration had recently scheduled the policy, which allows border officials to stop migrants at the southern border to help stop the spread of COVID-19, to end on May 23.
“If and when the court issues the TRO [temporary restraining order] the department is planning to comply with that order,” a senior administration official said on Tuesday, according to Politico.
“It really makes no sense to us that the plaintiffs would demand, and the court would order, that [Department of Homeland Security] be stopped in its use in expedited removal, which is going to prevent us from adequately preparing for the aggressive applications for immigration law when public health expires,” the official added.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also released a plan on how it will handle the expected surge in illegal immigration if Title 42 ends.
“When the Title 42 public health order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memo discussing the agency’s plan.
Mayorkas added that the surge in illegal immigration will put further stress on border officials as the border crisis worsens.
“Despite the efforts of our dedicated DHS workforce and our partners executing this comprehensive plan, a significant increase in migrant encounters will substantially strain our system even further,” he said.
According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document obtained by ABC News, the Biden administration’s decision to end Title 42 will result in as many as 18,000 migrants attempting to cross the southern border each day.
“The DHS Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) produced projections for post-Title 42 Southwest Border encounters describing low, medium, high, or very high encounter scenarios,” the document says. “These scenarios underpin planning assumptions that generate requirements which in turn drive operational execution. Based on these projections the SBCC is currently planning for 6,000, 12,000 (high) and 18,000 (very high) encounters per day.”
