The Biden administration is rolling out unprecedented measures intended to levy consequences against migrants who cross the border unlawfully in the wake of Title 42’s expiration this week. But, officials concede, the high number of border arrests in the coming days will still pose a steep challenge.
President Joe Biden put it simply Tuesday: “It’s going to be chaotic for a while.”
Since Biden took office, administration officials have been aware that Title 42 would eventually have to go as the pandemic, on which the authority is based, receded. The rule became a source of tension, both within the administration and politically as Democrats hammered the administration for not ending it sooner and Republicans sought its extension.
Now, more than two years into Biden’s presidency and on the heels of his campaign announcement, the rule is set to expire on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. ET, in conjunction with the end of the Covid-19 public health emergency. And it will pose an immediate challenge for the administration.
“This is a really unprecedented moment in the Americas,” a senior administration official said Tuesday. “Twenty million people are displaced across the region. The Covid-19 pandemic and political insecurity, and climate change have exacerbated what was normally pushing people to migrate.”
Administration officials are setting plans in motion to try to manage the flow. US border authorities encountered more than 10,000 migrants along the US southern border on Tuesday, according to a Homeland Security official, already surpassing government estimates in the aftermath of Title 42 just days from it expiring.
Among the new policy measures the administration is putting into place are a new asylum rule that will largely bar migrants who passed through another country from seeking asylum in the US. The rule, proposed earlier…
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