(NewsNation) — A day before the end of Title 42, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said officials are in the process of “surging personnel” to the U.S.-Mexico border.
This includes more than 1,400 DHS personnel, 1,000 processing coordinators and an additional 1,500 employees from the Department of Defense.
“All of these individuals will allow our law enforcement officers to stay in the field and focus on their critical mission,” Mayorkas said at a news conference Wednesday.
Communities and officials have long warned that the ending of Title 42 on May 11 will lead to an “influx” of migrants coming to America from across the border.
“Even after nearly two years of preparation, we expect to see large numbers of encounters at our southern border in the days and weeks after May 11. We are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors,” Mayorkas said. “This places an incredible strain on our personnel, our facilities and our communities with whom we partner closely.”
DHS’ plan will deliver results, Mayorkas said, but added that “It will take time” for that work to be fully realized.
“Our efforts within the constraints of our broken immigration system are focused on ensuring that the process is safe, orderly and humane, all while protecting our dedicated workforce and communities,” Mayorkas said.
Title 42 was a provision in the 1944 Public Health Service Act allowing the federal government to ban people from entering the country in the case of a pandemic, such as COVID-19. Under it, border officials could expel migrants on public health grounds.
A new rule was finalized Wednesday by the Department of Justice and DHS. It will go into effect once Title 42 expires officially at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Mayorkas said at the press conference.
This rule presumes that those who do not use lawful pathways to enter the United States are ineligible for asylum.
“It allows the United States to remove individuals who do not establish a reasonable fear of persecution,” Mayorkas said.
While non-citizens can rebut this presumption, he said, this will only happen in “very limited circumstances.”
Even after Title 42 expires, Homeland Security leaders have emphasized that immigration laws will still be enforced under Title 8.
Those who cross the border unlawfully are subject to criminal consequences, such as deportation and a five-year ban on reentering the United States, with Title 8.
“Let me be clear: Our border is not open, and will not be open after May 11,” Mayorkas stressed at a different press conference where he announced the U.S. will open migrant processing centers in Latin America.
These processing centers are one way DHS leaders say they are trying to encourage migrants to come through “safe, orderly, humane and lawful” immigration pathways, as opposed to being dependent on human smugglers.
Another tactic they are using is a new digital advertising campaign in Central and Southern America to counter what traffickers are claiming about U.S. immigration laws, Mayorkas said.
“This campaign adds to our extensive ongoing communications efforts in the region,” Mayorkas said.
During his remarks Wednesday, Mayorkas took Congress to task for not fixing what he called a “broken, outdated immigration system” that has been in place for more than 20 years.
While DHS has requested personnel, facilities, transportation and other resources of Congress, these have not been received, Mayorkas said.