Texas expects huge surge in border crossings after Title 42 ends
The end of a Trump-era border deportation policy later this month is expected to increase migrant crossings by up to 40%, El Paso, Texas officials say.
The city is currently ground zero for the border crisis, and El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said Monday the Dec. 21 end of Title 42 will only worsen the deluge.
“Once [migrants] If you see it happening, more people will come,” he said during a public gathering.
In El Paso, the end of the policy would mean the 1,700 daily border crossings could rise to 2,380 per day. Nationwide, up to 18,000 migrants could enter the United States every day.
The pandemic policy begun during the Trump administration is being used by the US Border Patrol to expel about 40% of all US border workers. A federal judge ordered the government to end the policy, but the Biden administration appealed Wednesday, asking that it be applied in the future — though it vowed to stick to the Dec. 21 end date.
The number of migrants crossing the border has exploded during the Biden administration – with a record-breaking 2.4 million people entering the US in fiscal year 2022.
According to Border Patrol statistics, as of October, El Paso has more border crossings than anywhere else in the country. Samaniego said El Paso leaders held an emergency planning meeting Tuesday.
“It’s about going from a managed crisis to a potential mess if we don’t do the right thing,” he said.
The county, which currently operates a migrant center to help asylum-seeking immigrants travel from El Paso to their final destinations in the United States, intends to move to a larger building to accommodate more migrants. The county is also working with nonprofits in Houston and Dallas to evict migrants from the west Texas border city.
The end of Title 42 would mean El Paso’s 1,700 daily border crossings could increase to 2,380 per day.
In September, immigrants were released onto the streets, where they slept in tents for days.
At El Paso International Airport, migrants sleep in a designated area with cots as they have a morning flight and will have to wait less than 12 hours.
The measures are deemed necessary to keep endless waves of immigrants out of overcrowded shelters — or to use El Paso’s airport as a makeshift shelter. Sleeper beds at El Paso International Airport are available for migrants who have a morning flight and have a wait of less than 12 hours.
Samaniego described El Paso as already “at a breaking point,” with shelters operating at full capacity and immigrants sleeping on the streets near bus depots.
Relying largely on help from the federal government, the city of El Paso says the border crisis is too big for it.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego described the areas’ resources as at a “breaking point” Monday.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego described the areas’ resources as being at a “stress point.”
“Nobody can keep up with that; There’s not a lot of housing to have for that, El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino told local broadcaster KFOX. “It’s going to take an all-out effort, and a lot of that will come down to the federal government, what they can do to decompress our region within our region.”
But that help may not come anytime soon. In Arizona, a sheriff in an overwhelmed county slammed President Biden for refusing to visit the border on his trip to Arizona.
“The commander in chief is solely responsible for this,” Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot told News Nation. “I mean, he’s the one who says ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and shame on him for not wanting to engage with local communities to do the right thing.”
He said his lawmakers encounter 900 to 950 migrants every day in a county of just 200,000 people.
Biden traveled to Phoenix on Monday to visit a manufacturing company. When asked why he didn’t visit the border at the press pool, he replied: “Because there are more important things. They will invest billions of dollars in a new company.”
https://nypost.com/2022/12/08/texas-expect-huge-jump-in-border-crossings-after-title-42-ends/ Texas expects huge surge in border crossings after Title 42 ends
