Residents and local officials along the U.S. / Mexico border are once again being warned by law enforcement leaders to prepare for a massive influx of undocumented non-U.S. citizens, this time following President Joe Biden’s decision to end the Title 42 public health emergency at the border.
On Wednesday, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels testified via video during a hearing of the U.S. House subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, & Operations about Title 42 and its impact on his border county. Also addressing lawmakers in Washington D.C. was U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brandon Judd, who is the president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Title 42, a federal public health rule, has been used to refuse most admissions at the border the last two years. In fact, data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows more than 52 percent of the 838,685 migrants encountered at the southern border from October through February were expelled under Title 42.
And according to Judd, agents are preparing to encounter up to 12,000 migrants a day within a week of the May 23 end of Title 42, and as many as 18,000 encounters a day could be expected over the summer.
Judd has praised U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and U.S. Senator John Testor of Montana for their grasp of the situation along the border, where he says U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials believe nearly 1 million people from more than 100 countries will try to cross in the next six weeks if the White House does not quickly change course on Title 42.
Judd’s shocking comment about the overwhelming number of expected border crossers came during an appearance on the popular James T. Harris show on KFYI 550AM in Phoenix.
“There’s absolutely nothing being done,” Judd said of Biden’s approach to the border crisis. “When you look at the numbers, and how overwhelmed we are, the only thing that I can see that they can potentially do is bring in other DHS employees to process these people. But that just means more releases and that means more people are going to come and they’re just going to exacerbate the problem.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and other attorney generals recently sued the Biden Administration for the decision to lift Title 42. The lawsuit argues Biden violated federal procedures by not publishing notices of the proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register. The suit also claims most such policies have a 30-day delayed effective date once published.
During his interview with Harris, Judd questioned the motive of the current White House border plan.
“The plan is to bring more people into the United States,” Judd said matter-of-factly. “The only thing that makes sense is that they want to change the electorate. That’s what they want to do.”
And Judd is concerned that at this point, it could be too late to do anything about the influx.
“They could have done something when the numbers were low enough to deal with it, but you have to remember it is lawful for somebody to claim asylum,” he told Harris. “That is a legal process as long as Title 42 is gone. They can approach the borders and claim asylum and as long as they claim asylum we have to process them accordingly.”
Judd said he understood those are the nation’s immigration laws.
“I believe in our laws. The problem is when they had the opportunity – going back to the Trump era – to continue programs that absolutely work,” he said of the Trump Administration’s Remain In Mexico policy. “But (Biden) got rid of them and didn’t replace them with anything. So now we’re underwater and they’re trying to figure out what they can do.”
One immediate option, Judd said, is to reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols utilized by the Trump Administration. However, he doesn’t see that as an option for President Biden and his border advisors.
“If they did that, this problem would be gone. But they won’t do that because they’re going to have to admit that they made a mistake and this administration will never admit that,” he said.
