Border Patrol Chief Claims U.S. Will Encounter 1M Migrants in F.Y. 2022; Groups Say More Immigrants to Come If Title 42 Expulsion Ends

The U.S.-Mexico border is expected to see an influx of migrants in the coming days.

According to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, the United States is currently on track to hit one million migrant encounters so far in the Fiscal Year 2022, which began in October last year, per Fox News.

"Probably in the next two or three days we'll get over a million encounters or apprehensions along the southwest border," Ortiz underscored while speaking at a border security conference in San Antonio, Texas.

According to New York Post, there were already 838,685 migrant encounters on the southeast border of the U.S. into the F.Y. 2022.

The outlet also mentioned that the statistics from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also showed that in February alone, border patrol agents encountered at least 101,099 immigrants.

The said number is higher than the more than 36,000 migrant encounters for February in F.Y. 2021.

Fox News noted that the records of migrant encounters in March for the current fiscal year have not yet been released. However, the outlet furthered that the number in March is expected to outpace the encounters in February.

Ortiz highlighted that there are about 7,000 migrants stopped at the southern border each day. The said number shows a higher encounter in February where there are only around 5,900 encounters per day.

The border patrol chief also mentioned that the agents encountered migrants from 157 different countries. However, he did not mention the specific countries where the migrants originated from.

According to reports, there were 1.7 million migrant encounters recorded in the entirety of F.Y. 2021.

Border Groups Claim Illegal Immigrant Explosion If Title 42 Expulsion Is Ended

Several groups have expressed their concerns once the Title 42 expulsion was ended by the Biden administration.

National Border Council president Brandon Judd claimed that an explosion of illegal immigration may occur once the Title 42 expulsion was ended by the current administration, per the Post.

"When Title 42 goes away, we're going to be in serious trouble," Judd added.

The director of the immigrant shelter Annunciation House, Ruben Garcia, also shared what might happen if the police were not extended.

"When Title 42 goes away, this will be a sea of cots," Garcia stressed.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has until Wednesday to decide if they will renew the Title 42 expulsion.

It can be recalled that Title 42, a policy established at the onset of COVID-19, has allowed the United States to keep migrants in Mexico or deport them to their home countries before they have a chance to claim asylum.

Critics of the policy, like The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), have long urged the Biden administration to end the policy, arguing that the mandate is not about the health of the migrants, but about stripping their rights to seek asylum.

Judd said that 52 percent of asylum seekers in March were directly expelled under Title 42, per the Post.

Title 42 expulsion took effect under the regime of Ex-president Donald trump. However, 70 percent of the deportation under the policy were done under the tenure of President Joe Biden.

Border Patrol Buckles Up Over Possible Migrant Surge

Judd also shared that if Title 42 expulsion was not extended by the CDC, border patrol agents could be occupied with doing other things instead of focusing on patrolling the perimeters of the United States.

Judd noted that Border Patrol agents were dispatched to hotspots for crossing into the country, such as Del Rio and McAllen.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is sending administrative volunteers to the border to handle the increase in the paperwork that will result from processing more cases of immigration.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

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