DHS Officials Warn of Migration Crisis: ‘Prepare for Border Surges Now’

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are warning of an illegal immigration crisis at the United States-Mexico border as President Joe Biden continues unraveling border controls that slowed the flow of foreign nationals over the last year.

Internal communications at DHS, reported by the Washington Post and the Washington Times, reveal that agency officials are seemingly concerned that illegal immigration will continue ticking upwards while Biden keeps lifting migration controls.

The Post reported:

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement email obtained by The Washington Post shows that the administration has already entered crisis mode on the southern border. [Emphasis added]

“We need to prepare for border surges now,” Timothy Perry, ICE’s new chief of staff, wrote in a Feb. 12 email. “We need to begin making changes immediately.” [Emphasis added]

…

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told senior officials “to prepare for border surges now,” Perry wrote. “We need to begin making changes immediately. We should privilege action over cost considerations; do what is needed, and the department will work on funding afterward.” [Emphasis added]

To prevent the appearance of a crisis — with crowded holding facilities and overwhelmed federal agents — DHS and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are reportedly flying foreign nationals arriving at the southern border into cities across the U.S.

Biden, since taking office in late January, has ended the Remain in Mexico policy, restarted the Catch and Release program, and canceled cooperative asylum agreements with Central America.

The result has been a surge of illegal immigration to the southern border and mass releases of border crossers into the U.S. interior — many without being required to test negative for the Chinese coronavirus. In January, for example, border apprehensions jumped nearly 160 percent and marked the highest level of illegal immigration for the month since January 2006.

The surge, thus far, has pushed the Biden administration to open a holding facility in Carizzo Springs, Texas, that will hold up to 700 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs). Likewise, DHS is opening a facility in Donna, Texas.

Biden’s opening of the facilities near the border comes after he spent his 2020 presidential campaign denouncing former President Trump for detaining border crossers in facilities rather than freeing them into the U.S. interior.

“Close them down!” Biden said in August 2019 of the facilities.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.