WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday he’s ordering his agency to allow “thousands” of additional migrants to enter the US legally while opening new facilities in Central and South America to process asylum-seekers.
Mayorkas said a border rush is likely when the Title 42 COVID-19 policy expires May 11, but that the new program may mitigate a fresh spike in illegal entries — even though the details remain fuzzy.
“This is a hemispheric challenge that demands hemispheric solutions,” Mayorkas told reporters before adding: “Let me be clear, our border is not open and will not be open after May 11.”
The DHS chief’s outline also did not include any remedy for a years-long backlog in resolving asylum cases — with new arrivals to New York waiting up to a decade just to get a court date.
Under the plan, prospective migrants will be told to go to processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia to be prescreened and potentially allowed into the US to await final rulings on their claims of persecution in their homelands.
Centers in other countries are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Mayorkas estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 people per month will be processed through these centers and that “this is a process that will scale up over time.”
In theory, the legal pathway will encourage migrants to wait their turn rather than rush to the border and try to enter the US on foot. Their attempts to do so have created scenes of chaos at America’s southern frontier, stretching local resources and providing a boon to human traffickers and drug cartels.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patrol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping migrants out of the country would slow down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predecessor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at 11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden administration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that international law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intention to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled under Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an all-time high of more than 2.3 million arrests at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
“We are building lawful pathways for people to come to the United States without resorting to the smugglers,” said Mayorkas, standing alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The DHS chief claimed the US has tamped down on illegal crossings by Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans under a months-old “parole” program that allows 30,000 people per month from that cohort into the US to await asylum rulings.
Republicans say the Biden administration lacks the legal authority to inaugurate such programs.
Mayorkas added that after May 11, border authorities are preparing for “expedited removal” proceedings against illegal border crossers — though he said those who cross illegally will remain eligible to request asylum and that family units won’t be detained, potentially blunting any effect on the numbers of people who cross the border or who are allowed to stay after doing so.
Title 42 allowed border authorities to quickly remove migrants, though enforcement was softened over time to allow family units and even single adults to remain in the US to await asylum rulings.
Mayorkas said the renewed crackdown could result in five-year bans on border crossers who subsequently wish to enter the US.
“We do expect that encounters at our southern border will increase as smugglers are seeking to take advantage of this change and already are hard at work spreading disinformation that the border will be open,” Mayorkas said.
“If they do take that perilous journey and happen to survive, because all too many do not, they will find that the border is not open and they are subject to removal and removal will occur in the expedited removal context swiftly in a matter of days, or just a few weeks,” he threatened.
Blinken said the new processing centers would prioritize certain groups of people, including “religious minorities, political dissidents, LGBTQI+ persons and survivors of gender-based violence to expedited resettlement processes.”
Mayorkas said the US may refer some migrants to other nations for resettlement, but that they would allow a broad scope of possible pathways to America, too.
“We are dedicating specially trained refugee officers to the centers,” he said. “They will interview applicants for the US refugee admissions program and provide for the swift processing of a greater number of individuals. In addition to refugee processing, migrants may be screened at the centers and referred to pursue additional pathways to the United States or to other countries for which they may be eligible.
“We are streamlining the long-established family reunification parole processes for Cubans and Haitians so individuals from these countries with approved family-based petitions can more quickly reunite with their families here in the United States. [And] I have directed my team to develop family reunification processes that will extend this well-recognized model to certain individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.”
Immigration hardliners were unimpressed by the administration announcement.
“This whole plan — the admin’s whole perspective on immigration — is based [on] giving prospective immigrants what they want, rather than complying with American law and pursuing the interests of the American people,” tweeted Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Basically what Mayorkas is saying is that he aspires to take market share from the smugglers, so that the US government will become the world’s leading alien-smuggling cartel,” he added.
Fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, saw a record-breaking 2.4 million arrests of people who illegally crossed the US-Mexico border, many of whom were subsequently released into the US.
Border-crossing apprehensions are up 4% so far in fiscal 2023.
The Post reported last month that New York City’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement office was “fully booked through October 2032” for appointments to process migrants released at the southern border. Last week, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said the office was “mostly booked” through 2033.
Immigration experts say the massive backlog makes the Big Apple the ideal place for migrants with dubious asylum claims to settle.
