The end of Title 42 test Homeland Security’s mettle
The Department of Homeland Security is assigning hundreds of asylum officers to the border to sort through the region’s recent surge in humanitarian needs, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday.
“Short-term solutions” are needed to address the “decades-old problem” of a “broken immigration system,” Mayorkas said in explaining the surge.
“We are clear-eyed about the challenges we are likely to face in the days and weeks ahead. … We are taking this approach within the constraints of a broken immigration system that Congress has not fixed for more than two decades and without the resources we need: personnel, facilities, transportation and others that we have requested of Congress and that we were not given,” he said.
The rising number of migrants crossing the border “places an incredible strain on our personnel, our facilities and our communities with whom we partner closely,” he added.
Asked about reports that Customs and Border Protection is releasing migrants due to capacity issues, Mayorkas said those migrants are still required to meet strict conditions and report back to authorities, adding those releases only occur in limited circumstances.
“Like other administrations, when we release individuals, we release them on conditions — and their compliance with those conditions is absolutely necessary. And if they fail to comply, we will seek to apprehend them and remove them,” he said.
The department is facing one of its greatest tests in the coming days when severe border restrictions — first ordered by the Trump administration — will finally come to an end. With the potential for an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, Border Patrol agents are bracing for the worst.
Standing on the banks of the Rio Grande River, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz his agents are prepared but need more help.
“I certainly need more Border Patrol agents out here on the front lines,” Ortiz added. “I need to be able to build an enterprise behind them to process the migrants that we encounter each and every day.”
Ortiz has studied the landscape of the southwest border for decades, marshaling resources across the nearly 2,000-mile borderline.
