The Biden Administration Responds to Record-Setting Day at Border, Title 42’s End By All But Giving Up

Thursday will mark the end of Title 42, a public health order issued by the Centers for Disease Control that allowed authorities to quickly expel migrants who illegally crossed into the United States.

Originally conceived of as a measure to slow the spread Covid-19, it turned out to be a method by which the Biden administration could mitigate the damage wrought by its border security policies.

Since President Joe Biden took office, the number of migrants trying to enter the country has increased exponentially, even with Title 42 at his administration’s immediate disposal.

The new president has brought on this crisis by reversing various Trump administration policies that took pressure off the country’s overburdened immigration policy.

In the same month he took the oath of office, Biden scrapped his predecessor’s “Remain in Mexico” protocol, which held that applicants for asylum in the United States must remain in Mexico until the judicial system was ready to conduct their hearings. The month after that, he terminated Asylum Cooperative Agreements that with Latin American countries that allowed the U.S. to send some applicants to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to see asylum there. Then in September 2021, the administration released guidelines to exercise its right to only seek to remove illegal immigrants that pose an immediate threat to communities in the United States.

Though the aim of these policies is compassion, their effect is the exact opposite. By providing migrants with reason to think they will be able to get into and stay in the country, the administration has provided them with an incentive to simply mass at the border. The chaos created by this situation not only threatens the integrity of the border, but allows the migrant population to be exploited by drug cartels and human traffickers.

That brings us to Tuesday, when more than 11,000 people were caught crossing the border illegally, setting a single day record. Most disturbingly of all, that number exceeded the expectations for after Title 42’s lifting on Thursday. It’s as if a tornado hit while authorities were prepping for a hurricane.

What is the Biden administration’s plan now? I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that it’s to give up. From NBC News on Wednesday:

After more than 11,000 migrants were caught crossing the southern border on Tuesday, the Biden administration is now preparing a memo that will direct Customs and Border Protection to begin releasing migrants into the U.S. without court dates or the ability to track them, according to three sources familiar with the plans.

The Biden administration began releasing migrants without court dates to alleviate overcrowding in March 2021, but had previously enrolled those migrants in a program known as Alternatives to Detention, which required them to check in on a mobile app until they were eventually given a court date. The new policy would release them on “parole” with a notice to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office but without enrolling them in the program.

That’s right: the administration reportedly intends to double down on its strategy of incentivizing migrants to simply cross into the country or mass at its border by releasing them into the country without any way for authorities to keep tabs on or find them.

The Los Angeles Times has since reported that the administration will be rolling out an ankle monitor program for heads of household that qualify for Family Expedited Removal Management. It’s unclear if this is a separate program than the one reported by NBC, or if the ankle monitors are being presented as a solution to the tracking problem.

It’s of concern in either case. Any policy that opens the door for migrants’ entry through this unconventional (if less so every day) method of immigration while rewarding those who already have will only lead to a perpetuation of the problem.

The rationale for these policies is the avoidance of overcrowding conditions at facilities used to detain migrants at the border. It is doubtlessly true that ongoing and incoming influxes will put stress on them.

But this solution is less of a Band-Aid than it is another cut. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman attempted to defend the Biden administration’s position by explaining that “each parole will be considered on an individualized case-by-case basis, and individuals who are released will be required to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and undergo removal proceedings in immigration court.”

It remains unclear what mechanisms authorities will have for enforcing those requirements, however. Anonymously, another DHS official gave a more honest explanation of the decision: “We’re already breaking and we haven’t hit the starting line.”

That’s not the consequence of bad luck, but bad decisions. By doubling down on the same line of thinking, the administration is giving up in all but name.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.