Matt Bush, FISM News
On May 11, Title 42 will come to an end and officials are expecting migrant encounters at the border to more than double almost immediately.
Even before the measure expires, according to Fox News, “sources say in the first four days of May they have been encountering more than 8,000 migrants a day border-wide.” Those same sources estimate that after May 11, there could be up to 14,000 encounters on a daily basis.
According to a previous FISM article, in 2020, the year before Biden took office, there were a recorded 400,000 encounters with illegal migrants at the southern border. Then, 2021 set a record with 1.6 million followed by more than 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022.
Doing the math, there were slightly more than 6,300 migrant encounters every day in 2022, a number that has created a crisis at the border. If that number goes to 14,000, the chaos and danger at the southern border will grow exponentially.
Fox News tweeted a video that “shows an enormous line of hundreds of migrants who just crossed illegally into Brownsville, TX.”
NEW: Remarkable video from our Fox drone team shows an enormous line of hundreds of migrants who just crossed illegally into Brownsville, TX this evening. A large majority of them are single adults. The RGV continues to see a massive surge of illegal crossings ahead of T42 drop. pic.twitter.com/xHDV8sc8PD
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 8, 2023
Title 42 is a rarely-used measure that was created in 1944 and was meant to give the surgeon general and president the power to “prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places as he shall designate in order to avert such danger, and for such period of time as he may deem necessary for such purpose” when a communicable disease present in another country poses a risk to America.
In March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump enacted Title 42 arguing that, “taking migrants into custody in federal facilities would create more of a public health risk.”
Since President Joe Biden took office, he has used Title 42 as well, but his stance on immigration has led to record numbers of migrant crossings at the southern border even with the measure in place.
The president knew that Title 42 would be coming to an end with the end of the pandemic and had two years to prepare for that eventuality.
“The Biden administration had two years to prepare for this and did not do so. Our state is going to bear the brunt. Migrants will be in crisis as soon as next week. It will be a humanitarian crisis because we’re not prepared,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) told Fox News host Margaret Brennan.
Immigration in America is a federal issue and should be taken care of by the federal government of the United States, according to law. Instead, Texas and Sinema’s home state of Arizona are taking the brunt of the Biden administration’s ineptitude on immigration.
“Although illegal immigration is absolutely a national problem that requires a national solution, the Texas National Guard is doing our part,” said Major Sean Storrud, Task Force West commander of the Texas National Guard.
The Texas National Guard is making preparations to prevent illegal immigration by reinforcing razor wire barriers and Sinema introduced a bill that would give “temporary two-year authority to expel migrants with an exemption for asylum claims.”
The reality of the situation is that it is the federal government’s responsibility, but since the Biden administration has failed, border states have had to stand in the gap as a real crisis is already here and is only growing.
“Border Patrol shared with us their intelligence that there are approximately 700,000, as of three weeks ago, in the shelters in Mexico waiting to come into the United States,” Yuma County Board of Supervisors head Jonathan Lines told Breitbart, a number that was verified by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). “They also shared with us that at the Darian Gap which is at the Panama Canal, they’ve seen a 500 percent surge in people crossing over that gap on their way up to the United States.”