(Originally published in American Thinker.)
Migrants have been masssing at the U.S.-Mexico border waiting for the Title 42 health program to expire on May 11. Why? Once it does, it will create an opportunity for the migrants to cross the border and get a toehold in the United States.
“There are thousands and thousands just waiting for Title 42 to end. I would say a fear is that the Biden admin has no clue just how bad it’s going to get. We can barely actively patrol the border now. When Title 42 ends, all of our resources, all of our little manpower that we do have, are going to be focused on processing. Field work will nearly cease to exist in my opinion,” a Customs and Border Patrol agent working along the southern border told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Title 42 was established during the Trump Administration at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Border officials can automatically refuse entry to migrants who may have been infected by the deadly virus. According to government statistics, 2.5 million potential illegal immigrants have been turned away at the border.
Some border states challenged the end of the order, but that only delayed the inevitable end. And once it does end, the Department of Homeland Security estimated CBP could be expected to handle up to 14,000 illegal immigrants each day, a source told CNN.
Yet, despite that expected wave of illegals, little to nothing has been done to prepare the southern border for the surge.
“Most of the time, we are just told that Title 42 will end eventually and to be mentally prepared for the influx of migrants when it does. Regular line agents don’t seem to be offered an outline or plan as to how we will actually deal with the large numbers at the processing level,” one agent told the DCNF.
While the program can’t and shouldn’t remain in place indefinitely, right now it is protecting our southern border. Even the Biden Administration has admitted that once it expires, there will be a surge of illegals.
So why hasn’t more been done? Agents reassigned. Temporary facilities arranged for. National Guard or other military deployed.
The federal government knows that Customs and Border Patrol and border communities can’t handle the expected wave of people crossing illegally. El Paso, which has a Democrat mayor, has already declared a state of emergency in the city because of the overwhelming demand for services that the growing illegal immigrant population requires, and the city can’t provide. And he did that while Title 42 is still in effect.
Meanwhile, the White House appears to be doing nothing to strengthen our border. When Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked what Vice President Kamala Harris is doing to address the “root cause” of mass migration to the southern border, which is something she has been put in charge of, Jean-Pierre said, “I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like.”
When that wave of illegals hits the border, it will be a tidal wave that overwhelms the order and facilities along the border unless the government starts preparing now. It may be too late, but anything that can be done to better prepare is better than nothing.
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
