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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified in Congress last week, reporting that migration levels will substantially increase after Title 42 is set to be lifted later in May. Title 42 was a temporary program, limiting migrant admissions during Covid.
DHS officials are expecting possibly 18,000 arrivals a day, which would lead to an annual number of over 6.5 million.
Even with Title 42, the Biden administration has already released 836,000 migrants into the U.S. and this number does not include the “got aways.”
The Biden administration apparently has no plans to detain the vast majority of arrivals. Unaccompanied children, people who claim fear of persecution or claim having relatives here, will be quickly processed and transported to their destination of choice.
Maine’s Rep. Jared Golden leads a bipartisan bill to prevent the Biden administration from lifting Title 42 without a plan to manage the massive numbers expected to strain the resources of receiving communities and our immigration courts which already have a 1.6 million case backlog.
Title 42 allows a temporary breather, but we still aren’t addressing the core issues: How many more? Do we intend to set any limits, and how do we enforce them?
Jonette Christian
Holden