U.S. Warns Migrants Before End of Pandemic Restrictions That ‘Border Is Not Open’
But the end of the policy is exposing deep divisions that have for years hampered congressional efforts to rework the country’s outdated immigration laws. Those laws are now in the spotlight as Republican leaders attempt to pass a stringent border enforcement bill through the House that has pitted members of the G.O.P. against one another.
Mr. Mayorkas said the administration was sending more asylum officers to process claims as well as thousands of personnel from the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense. President Biden said on Wednesday that he was considering sending additional troops to the border, adding to the 1,500 announced last week.
Mr. Mayorkas has repeated the warning he delivered Wednesday for the past two years. But migrants are likely to continue attempting to cross into the United States, given that officials have been releasing them from Border Patrol’s custody to stay in the country temporarily until they face an immigration court hearing.
It is unclear how many more illegal crossings there will be once Title 42 lifts. In El Paso on Wednesday, the Border Patrol chief, Raul L. Ortiz, said he did not expect the number to reach 17,000 or 18,000 a day.
“The increases that we’ve seen in the last five to six days — I think were really the surge,” Mr. Ortiz told a group of reporters. “I think that what we see now is a continued effort by some to message incorrectly that once Title 42 goes away, it’s going to be a free-for-all along the border.”
Source: The New York Times
