A former aide to President Biden slammed the president in response to the news that his administration is sending 1,500 troops to the U.S. southern border in preparation for an expected surge in illegal immigration when Title 42 ends later this month.
The former aide, Andrea Flores, said that the move indicates that Biden neglected to prepare for the end of Title 42 which created a more dire situation.
“Deploying military personnel suggests a concerning lack of readiness for this transition,” said Flores, who is now an immigration adviser to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “had over two years to plan a gradual wind down of Title 42,” Flores wrote on Twitter. “Instead, the situation has escalated into a greater emergency that will, once again, lead to troops in border communities.”
Deploying military personnel suggests a concerning lack of readiness for this transition. @DHSgov had over two years to plan a gradual wind down of Title 42. Instead, the situation has escalated into a greater emergency that will, once again, lead to troops in border communities https://t.co/3gZI32E1PF
— Andrea R. Flores (@Arosaflores) May 2, 2023
Earlier Tuesday, DHS announced in a statement that it would be working with the State Department to implement “sweeping measures with our regional partners to reduce irregular migration, ensure safe, orderly, and efficient processing, and promptly remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States. Due to an anticipated increase in migration, DHS requested that the Department of Defense (DoD) augment the 2,500 military personnel currently providing support at the Southwest Border with an additional 1,500 personnel for a period of 90 days. ”
“DoD personnel will be performing non-law enforcement duties such as ground based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support. DoD personnel have never, and will not, perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other individuals in DHS custody. This support will free up DHS law enforcement personnel to perform their critical law enforcement missions,” the statement added.
The DHS has previously warned that the end of Title 42 will result in as many as 18,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border each day, according to an internal document obtained by ABC News.
“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.”
