Officials Bracing For 18,000 Migrants Per Day If Title 42 Is Rescinded; Republicans Slam Biden Admin For National Security Threats

House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), held a press conference on Monday blasting President Joe Biden’s handling of the Southern Border and warned that the situation would get worse after Title 42, the public health-related immigration provision that allows expedited deportation for migrants who enter the country, is set to officially end on May 23.

Republican members of Congress told reporters Monday evening that the immigration crisis at the border is already a national security issue that is emboldening transnational drug cartels while making “every county a border county.” McCarthy also revealed that when he and a group of GOP colleagues previously visited the border, illegal aliens told them they were coming across precisely because of President Joe Biden’s words. Many Republicans — including McCarthy — blame the deluge of illegal aliens on Biden directly, in part, for undoing border measures instituted by former President Donald Trump.

During a question and answer session, McCarthy explained that the “border crisis, goes down to the foundation of your nation, it goes down to the security of your nation, it goes down to the human trafficking, it goes down to fentanyl. There are so many elements to hear.” 

“And you listen to a president, he said he wants a secure border, so much that he put his vice president in charge — who has only been to it one time…. To a president has been in office more than 42 years, and the closest I’ve ever found that he came [to the southern border] was in a car driving by El Paso,” McCarthy continued.

“In a concern that numerous times from both sides of the aisle has asked this president to engage about the concerns of the border,” McCarthy added. “Just his language…in our very first time down to the border last year there’s a line of individuals there…and we asked him, ‘Why did they come in? How many days did it take them?’ They had been walking for more than 18 days. We asked them and they said, ‘Because Joe Biden invited us.’ That’s what they believed based on his language. This was right after the inaugural. He can start by saying, ‘Don’t come.’ He can start by using every avenue to secure the border, but on his very first day, he stopped the securing of the border by stopping the building of the wall.”

“The only reason you still have Remain in Mexico is that a court told him to do it but they’re not upholding it,” McCarthy added, in reference to a Trump-era border policy that Biden rescinded only to be ordered by a court to reinstate.

“How many people do you think are going to be at that border next month? How many people do you think are already coming to the border knowing what day May 23rd is?” McCarthy asked reporters.

McCarthy’s comments come as former U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told The Daily Wire in an interview that America will see a “tsunami” of illegal aliens into the U.S. that will “keep coming and coming and coming” once Title 42 is gone. 

Congressman John Katko (R-NY) also spoke Monday evening, blasting the president for his border policies and warned of the dangers of illicit drugs seeping into the country.

“Anytime in this country you hear of a drug overdose death, whether it be in Topeka, Kansas, or Syracuse, New York, my hometown, you have to understand that every single community is a border a community, and every single state is a border state because the poison that’s coming across our borders,” Katko said. “That’s much more easy to do because of the number illegal aliens coming across is making it impossible to stop and it’s killing kids all over the country.

Recently, Border Patrol released estimates that they were planning to encounter 8,000 illegal aliens a day this spring before Title 42 ends.

To that extent, Katko said, “Right now, we’re seeing about 8,000 aliens a day coming across  — 8,000 — operational control is about 5,000. They expect that once Title 42 is rescinded, it will go up to as much as 18,000 a day,” Katko also said. “There’s no way that we can control the border in any way, shape, or form if that happens.”

ABC News reported last week that the “Department of Homeland Security is bracing for as many as 18,000 migrants per day at the southern border if Title 42 is revoked, according to senior DHS officials who briefed reporters on Tuesday.” 

Katko also broke down how lucrative the porous border has been for cartels in Mexico, and why that puts the U.S. at risk.

“You cannot cross the border unless you pay the cartels a minimum of $4,000,” Katko said. Estimates in the past have put that figure between $4,000 and $10,000. I have 8,000 a day coming across times $4,000, that’s $32 million a day, which is $1 billion a month going to cartels. So what are they doing with this money? They’re investing in being able to make fentanyl by themselves and not having to import it from China. They’re investing in cybercriminal activity. They are creating and basically states, nation-states within Mexico, that are criminal organizations.”

Katko added that because of that activity, Mexico may become a “destabilized” nation right on America’s border which will present a further security risk for the U.S.

The full press conference can be seen here:

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