The Border Patrol union called the current crisis “the worst sustained disaster … ever seen at our border” — saying President Biden deserves to be arrested and that his administration is “absolutely corrupt to its core.”
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) tore into the end of Title 42 — the pandemic-era law allowing certain migrants to be booted — as Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz confirmed that “upwards of 60,000 migrants” are “staging in and around the immediate border area.”
“This is by far the worst sustained disaster that any BP agent, active or retired, has ever seen at our border,” the service’s official union tweeted just before Title 42 ended at midnight.
“And one man is responsible for every single bit of it, with the worst still to come,” the NBPC wrote alongside a photo of a smiling Biden.
“The Biden Administration is absolutely corrupt to its core,” the union alleged.
The union’s president, Brandon Judd, told Fox News late Wednesday that Biden should be treated like anyone caught smuggling migrants into the country.
“If he wasn’t the president of the United States, I would arrest him,” Judd told Sean Hannity.
“But he is the president, so he’s not held accountable,” he said.
“When you look at what the administration has done, they’ve completely and totally turned upside down what we have always done,” he said of his members’ ability to enforce the border and kick out anyone entering illegally.
“We can get this under control tomorrow. All we have to do is go back to the policies that President [Donald] Trump implemented,” he said.
“Joe Biden stole those policies from us — he stole every single one of our enforcement tools that would allow us to get this under control.
“We can keep the American public safe, but the only way we can do it is if we reimplement the rule of law.
“Without that the American public is going to suffer,” he warned.
While the border appeared to remain mostly quiet overnight after Title 42 ended at midnight, the union warned of worse to come.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patrol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Currently, migrants who cross the border illegally and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping migrants out of the country would slow down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predecessor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at 11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden administration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that international law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intention to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled under Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an all-time high of more than 2.3 million arrests at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
“Nobody except the cartel thugs is prepared for what’s about to hit us,” the NBPC tweeted.
Ortiz, the service’s chief, told CBS News that nearly 25,000 migrants were already in holding facilities and tents at the border with Mexico — despite officially only being able to hold a few thousand.
“We are over capacity in several of the sectors,” Ortiz told the network while in overrun El Paso.
“And so we’re working … to make sure that we release those migrants after they’ve been vetted and cleared, and they pose no significant threat to the community,” he said of the rush to free more space.
The flow into the country is only expected to get worse, he suggested.
“Upwards of 60,000 migrants we project are staging in and around the immediate border area,” he said. “So we’re focused on ensuring that we’re doing everything we can to allocate resources to address those flows.”
In Arizona, the mayor of Nogales, Jorge Maldonado, told Fox News that “We can only process so many” — warning that crossers “might be sitting here a couple of long days or weeks.”
“If we get flooded, the one thing that the city and the county are going to have problems with is funding to get those people out of here,” he warned.
US forces have fortified their posts with barbed wire, concrete barriers and heavily armed teams patrolling their front lines, with federal agents also on standby over the fear of rioters or mobs.
The enforcement did not put off some waiting to cross.
One video shows a group of Venezuelan men waiting to cross into Texas who were asked if they thought the “Texas soldiers were going to be a problem for you to swim over and get into America.”
“No, no — they’re just simply doing their job and helping people,” a shirtless man in the group said with a relaxed smile.
Still, asked if they thought that meant they “will let you in,” he smiled as he admitted, “No, no.”
