The Biden administration began returning up to 1,000 adult Venezuelan migrants per day to Mexico under the emergency CDC Title 42 COVID-19 emergency health order. This is despite President Joe Biden’s recently declaring the pandemic to be over. The plan to remove the migrants began late Wednesday afternoon.
The order from the Biden administration comes as the border crisis reaches a fever pitch in the border region and in the nation’s interior cities.
According to a source within CBP, the Border Patrol is working with immigration authorities in Mexico to remove the migrants and transport them to the interior of Mexico to preclude a speedy return to the U.S. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, says the plan will be implemented in several key crossing points along the southwest border.
The plan will unfold with 200 Venezuelan adult migrants returned daily at each of five crossing points. Migrants will be returned through the Rio Grande Valley, Del Rio, El Paso, Tucson, and San Diego Sectors of the Border Patrol. The source says the agency plans to add adult migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua to the plan as soon as possible.
The plan comes to light as several major cities in the interior grapple with the humanitarian costs of accommodating migrants bussed from the border by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency regarding the migrant arrivals in his city. The latest homeless shelter census recorded the highest occupancy in history. The mayor is seeking state and federal assistance to the tune of $1 billion to deal with the asylum seekers arriving daily to the Big Apple.
Adams suggested housing the migrants on rented cruise ships and is constructing a tent city to accommodate the recent arrivals. Adam’s complaint concerning the bussing is the lack of advance notice from Abbott regarding the bussing. Along the Texas border, thousands of Venezuelan migrants arrive daily without advance notice.
The Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector leads the nation as the sector with the highest percentage of large migrant groups encountered by the agency. The groups, at times numbering more than 400 in a single crossing, are mostly Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan migrants. The sector routinely faces overcrowding of local facilities and non-government shelters. The shelters, reimbursed for their expenses in caring for the migrants by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are also struggling to keep up with the pace of crossings in the area.
The source says the move may influence the level of crossings in the short term but will likely lead to an increase in the population of migrants that seek to avoid apprehension by the Border Patrol.
“These folks are not going to stay put in Mexico, I fear. They will likely return and do so in a manner that adds to the trespassing on private property and the high-speed pursuits on our highways” the source told Breitbart Texas.
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.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.