America's Talking - Border Patrol Braces for Surge at Southern Border as Title 42 Enforcement Ends

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

U.S. Border Patrol agents are bracing for a surge of foreign nationals entering the U.S. illegally as the public health authority Title 42 came to a close at midnight. At a border conference in El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol chiefs and Department of Homeland Security executives discussed what the end of the federal policy, that’s enabled agents to quickly process some foreign nationals for removal, would be like for federal agents as millions of people are expected to cross after the Biden administration drastically changed U.S. border policies. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to American Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief has the day off. So joining me today is investigative reporter Brett Rowland. We are recording this on Friday, May 12th. Brett, at 1159 p.m. Thursday night, last night, Title 42, the Public Health Authority put in place during the Trump administration that allowed Border Patrol agents, to quickly expel border crossers in the name of slowing the spread of COVID-19. That ended. Now that the COVID-19 emergency ended, which also ended yesterday, now that that's over, so too is Title 42. Of course, since President Biden first took office and changed immigration policies in the country, we've seen a surge in illegal border crossings. And with the end of Title 42 right now, we know that migrants who wanted to come into the United States have been

gathering outside of the border. And now we're seeing a surge on top of the surge of that. What can you tell us about what's going on now? And I know you covered a U.S. House hearing related to the border yesterday. Just your general thoughts on the news and what's happening. First, wasn't there already something this morning on lawsuit over the end of that? Yeah, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed for an emergency injunction to halt the Biden administration's catch and release program, which is essentially. because of the surge, detention centers along the border are at more than 100% capacity. So the Biden administration's plan has been essentially to quickly process migrants who cross the border,

both those who are trying to make asylum claims and have legal immigration, but also those who try to get into the country between ports of entry and try to illegally cross the border. So Ashley Moody's lawsuit, the Attorney General from Florida, was meant to halt that catch and release program and a judge ruled in her favor. But the issue becomes for Border Patrol because they're overwhelmed with illegal border crossings. What are they going to do about it? And we don't know the answer to that yet. And Dan, what is the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency saying? What are the agents on the ground? What's it been like for them? Oh, it's been unbelievably difficult for them because they're just overwhelmed. There's not, even though the federal government sent more people

to the border, even though the states like the state of Texas and Governor Greg Abbott has sent the Department of Public Safety officers, National Guards folks to the border. There's just overwhelming numbers of people trying to get into the U.S. that they're at their wits end, and they have been at their wits end, even before the end of Title 42, as I said, detention centers where border crossers are usually kept, at least until they are processed. They're beyond capacities. Some are at 150% of capacity before the end of Title 42. So the Biden administration's policy is to quickly process them, release them into the U.S., into border communities, and many of them have been getting court hearing dates set for like 2026, 2007.

So they're going to be in the country for three, four years without them having to report to an immigration court to see if they are eligible for asylum. or to be re-released into the United States. That's exactly what the House Republicans spent yesterday trying to end the catch and release program. And they did end up passing a bill that would essentially restrict how the Department of Homeland and Security can grant parole, which essentially allows people to temporarily enter the United States. The bill would also require the use of E-Verify, which is a federal system that allows public

and private sector employees to essentially confirm work eligibility. And that used to be phased in over several years. It would also, the bill would also restart construction of a southern border wall. About, about $1 million is the estimated cost. One billion dollars is the estimated cost for that through 2028. And then it would also require a U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire or to staff at a level of 22,000. Right now they have about 19,000 agents. This would require them to hire another 3,000.

So that's what passed yesterday. That was in the U.S. House, correct? where Republicans have a slight majority over Democrats. Right. So that passed in the House. Democrats have basically said it's dead on arrival in the Senate. Where Democrats themselves have a slight majority. And should it make it somehow to President Joe Biden's desk, Biden has indicated that he would veto it. So it is essentially dead in the water. Certainly the House doesn't have enough Republicans to override a presidential veto, but it's not going to get out, likely not going to get out of the Senate. Anyway, so it's essentially status quo.

So the question becomes, how is the U.S.? How are we going to integrate all of these thousands that all this week, U.S. Border Patrol has reported that more than 10,000 migrants a day have either tried to get into the U.S. via legal ports of entry or have bypassed ports of entry and illegally crossed the border into the U.S. How are we going to manage all of these people that are coming, 10,000 a day? Yeah, those are records. numbers. Is that correct, Dan? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think that this is certainly going to evolve in the coming months, and I think that we're going to see what happens. Essentially, you know, Congress is not going to take any action, and I'm not sure how much Biden can get done on his own.

So I think the situation is really going to play out quickly. So Governor Abbott has declared a state of emergency in Texas and has said, essentially since Biden took office, that the federal government and the Biden administration are not doing their jobs, are not following immigration law. But it's just not a Republican governor like Greg Abbott. The city of El Paso has a Democratic mayor, a Democratic majority on the city council. They've declared a state of emergency. El Paso has been bombarded. Migrants have been, thousands of migrants have been living on the streets of El Paso. For many months now, El Paso is significantly concerned about a very real humanitarian crisis because they don't have the resources to manage thousands of migrants, sheltering them, feeding them, providing any other

kind of services that they might need. But it's not just border communities like that. Of course, everyone's well aware that Governor Greg Abbott has been busing migrants to so-called sanctuary cities such as Chicago and New York City and Washington, D.C. since last summer. But El Paso's Democratic mayor has also been busing migrants to Chicago and New York. That's we've reported that significantly at the Center Square, but most other media outlets have not been reporting on El Paso's busing scheme. The Democratic mayors of Chicago and New York City and elsewhere have also put in place states of emergency because the much smaller number of people that are being bused to Chicago and New York and the like, they're overwhelmed with migrants. So this is not just

a border community issue. This has become an issue across the country. It certainly has, and it seems like there's still quite a lot of division here. You mentioned El Paso and the problems they've had. Their House rep yesterday spoke against House resolution too, saying that the measure the Republicans passed would make things much worse for the situation at the border. So it'll certainly be interesting to see what happens next. As Brett mentioned, this is an ongoing story. Listeners can keep up with this story at the centersware.com, but we are out of time. For Brett Rowland, I am Dan McKaleb. Please subscribe. And thanks for. listening.