The situation along the US-Mexico border is “serious and challenging”, a top Biden administration official said on Friday, as authorities brace for the end of a pandemic-era restriction that could lead to a surge in migrants trying to enter the country.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who was visiting the border town of Brownsville, Texas, said his agency was reviewing operations and planning ahead of the end of Title 42, which expires on May 11.
Title 42 has allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants from the country without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.
Under the new rules, the US will use expedited removal authorities under Title 8, which includes deportation, a five-year ban on re-entry and the loss of eligibility for parole programmes.
“The situation at the border is a very serious one, a very challenging one and a very difficult one,” Mr Mayorkas said.
“The border is not open, it has not been open and it will not be open subsequent to May 11.”
Thousands of migrants have been waiting on the Mexican side of the border for a chance to enter the US. Some believe that the expiration of Title 42 means they will be allowed in.
Officials on Friday said that 30,000 migrants have been apprehended since April 16, the majority of them from Venezuela, followed by Colombia and Ecuador.
Expelled migrants are sent back to Mexico or their country of origin aboard deportation flights.
Mr Mayorkas last week said the US would set up refugee centres in Guatemala and Colombia to process claims as well as expand family unification and humanitarian parole programmes in an effort to reduce the number of arrivals at the border.
That approach, Mr Mayorkas stressed, would also reduce migrants' use of human smugglers.
“We are reaching the people where they are — it is not only our security obligation, it is our humanitarian responsibility to cut the smugglers out and that is indeed what we are doing,” he said.
Title 42 was put in place in 2020 under then-president Donald Trump, a Republican who made stemming immigration at the border a core policy goal. The measure was used nearly three million times.
President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term in office, is currently facing intense pressure from Republican rivals to do more to stem arrivals at the border.
But Mr Biden, a Democrat who ran on a campaign to be more welcoming towards migrants, has also come under fire by advocates who say efforts to restrict access to asylum run counter to US and international law.
Last year, during the ninth Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles, the US and nearly two dozen countries signed a major agreement on migration.
“This is a regional challenge that requires regional solutions,” Mr Mayorkas said. “It is not unique to the southern border of the United States.”
