A high-level source within the Department of Homeland Security says the agency set a tentative date of April 1, 2022, to end the emergency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention migrant expulsion authority, Title 42. The move, according to the source has the agency scrambling to deal with the mass migration event expected to hit the U.S./Mexico border as a result of the action.
The source told Breitbart Texas the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is bracing for a wave of migrants to arrive at the southern border and is preparing to implement response plans that involve expanding capabilities to swiftly process and, in most cases, speed up releases of migrants into the United States on a scale never seen before.
In anticipation of the expected increase in migrant flow, DHS is soliciting volunteers to work along the southwest border in several capacities. In a DHS email reviewed by Breitbart Texas from DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien, the agency acknowledges support from DHS Volunteer Force (DVF) has helped to resettle thousands of Afghan nationals as part of Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome in recent months.
Volunteers are being sought with Spanish Language skills to assist with processing and data entry tasks that will be required to process migrants who will be allowed to now make claims of asylum that were prohibited under the Title 42 emergency order. The change in posture at the southern border will add hours of administrative processing requirements not needed under the CDC emergency expulsion authority.
In addition, the request for volunteers allows for a “no-special skills needed” category for those who just desire to “lend a hand” in what the source says is an avoidable situation that will overwhelm the Border Patrol in short order when Title 42 ends.
“If we had the removal options previously available to us, we would not be in the panic mode we are currently experiencing,” the source told Breitbart Texas.
The DHS volunteer email request ends with a statement that states “With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values.”
The agency is already dealing with overcrowding issues at its facilities related to an increase in migrant apprehensions, mostly single adults, that are not subjected to the emergency COVID-19 order. Hundreds of migrants have been released within hours from one single detention facility experiencing overcrowding.
The source told Breitbart Texas there is concern with lifting the authority which will overwhelm the Border Patrol due to the processing requirements of accepting asylum claims from thousands of migrants fleeing mostly economic issues in their home country.
“We know that most of our apprehensions involve migrants that are fleeing extreme poverty,” the source says. That condition under current immigration law is not a basis for a legally admissible claim of asylum.
Under the Trump-era CDC Title 42 authority, migrants have been returned to Mexico from a host of countries to avoid the spread of a communicable disease. The average administrative processing time for the Border Patrol, according to the source, is less than ten minutes. Legacy processing under current immigration laws that allow for an asylum petition to be submitted requires nearly two hours of administrative processing.
The source says the emergency order was watered down under the Biden administration by removing unaccompanied migrant children from being returned to Mexico under the order. This policy change, according to the source, created a surge in the number of unaccompanied migrant children apprehended at the border.
In 2021, more than 140,00 unaccompanied migrant children were apprehended crossing the southwest border compared to 33,239 the previous year when Title 42 was applied more broadly under the Trump administration.
The source says that the end of the Title 42 expulsion authority will increase the processing time required now that all migrants apprehended will be allowed to apply for asylum. Most, according to the source will be expeditiously released into the United States.
The emergency order allowed the Border Patrol to return more than half of all migrants apprehended along the southwest border. Since October 2021, of the 802,638 migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol, 426,819 were expeditiously returned under the order. Since its inception in March 2020, nearly two million migrants were expelled under this health-crisis protocol.
According to the source, the Border Patrol and its facilities will be quickly overwhelmed by the additional requirements to accept asylum claims because of the ending of the emergency authority. The source says the Border Patrol will now be granted blanket authority to release migrants into the United States and not refer the migrants to DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch for monitoring under their Alternatives to Detention Program that employs ankle bracelets and cell phones for tracking purposes.
The source says DHS disseminated a more than 100-page draft mass migration plan to deal with the anticipated influx of migrants expected at the southwest and coastal border. That draft plan, the source says, ties the expected unprecedented increase in illegal migration to climate change rather than the absolution of Trump-era policies that afforded the agency to swiftly remove migrants from the country upon apprehension.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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