DHS Expects 18k Illegals Per Day After Title 42 Lifted

As many as 18,000 migrants could cross the southern border daily once the Trump-era Title 42 health regulation is lifted, increasing the strain on federal officials already stretched thin trying to contain the crisis, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted on Sunday. 

“Title 42 is a public health authority. So what we started to do in September of last year was prepare for its end. … We’re not projecting 18,000, but what we do in the department is we plan for different scenarios, so we’re ready for anything,” Mayorkas said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

When host Dana Bash pressed Mayorkas on if the Department of Homeland Security would be able to handle that kind of surge, he said the department would be prepared — but admitted the system would be under “extraordinary strain.”

“It is our responsibility to be prepared for different scenarios, and that is what we are doing, and we have incredibly talented and dedicated people. There is no question if in fact we reach that number, that is going to be an extraordinary strain on our system,” the DHS secretary said.

“That is why the plan we have prepared calls for a number of different actions, not just in the domestic arena but also with our partners in the south,” he continued. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted Title 42, which allows border officials to immediately expel migrants trying to cross into the US for public health reasons because of COVID, in March 2020. 

But the CDC announced last month that it would allow the policy to expire on May 23 — a move that sparked bipartisan criticism.

Mayorkas was grilled on Capitol Hill last week over the administration’s inability to respond to the immigration crisis, which has soared to record levels. 

In March, there were 221,000 encounters between immigrants and border officials — the highest number of any month since the start of the Biden administration. 

At a House Judiciary Committee meeting last week, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) questioned Mayorkas’ ability to handle the border surge.

“Next month you’re going to make it worse,” Jordan said, referring to Title 42.

“We’ve never seen before you do anything right when it comes to the border,” the Ohio congressman said.

Jordan suggested that Mayorkas was purposely allowing illegal immigrants to enter the US.

“We have a Secretary of Homeland Security who is intentionally, deliberately, in a premeditated fashion…executing a plan to overwhelm our country with millions and millions of illegal migrants,” Jordan said.