El Paso Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser said on Monday that shelters across the border in Ciudad Juárez are overflowing with 20,000 people waiting to rush the U.S. border once the immigration restrictions that have been in place during the pandemic are lifted. That’s one Texas town along the 1900-mile U.S. border with Mexico.
The Supreme Court temporarily delayed the decision to repeal Title 42 restrictions on Monday in order to give the court a chance to hear arguments from 15 Republican states about why lifting the rule would create a humanitarian catastrophe. That hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, which means that the court-ordered December 21 deadline to end Title 42 could still be met.
Joe Biden has been under enormous pressure from left-wing open-border zealots to lift the restrictions that have kept more than 2.5 million asylum seekers from applying for entry into the United States since 2021. The ACLU and other immigration radicals sued in 2021 to force the government to begin accepting millions of asylum seekers.
When a federal judge ordered the government to lift the restrictions on November 15, the administration declined to appeal. That decision set the stage for what could be a tragedy, as tens of thousands of people try to cross the border all at once into communities that are ill-prepared to care for them, and a government that has no idea what’s about to hit us.
Despite the court stay Monday, the City of El Paso rushed to expand its ability to accommodate more migrants by converting large buildings into shelters, as the Red Cross brings in 10,000 cots.
Local officials also say they hope to relieve pressure on local shelters by chartering buses to other large cities in Texas or nearby states, bringing migrants a step closer to relatives and sponsors in coordination with nonprofit groups.
“We will continue to be prepared for whatever is coming through,” Leeser said.
DHS says they will continue “preparations to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when the Title 42 public health order lifts.”
Is this what DHS calls “safe, orderly, and humane”?
NEW: Video provided to @FoxNews by TX Congressman @RepTonyGonzales shows extreme overcrowding at the Border Patrol Central Processing Center in El Paso, TX. Congressman Gonzales says he took the video on Friday, when 4,600 migrants were in federal custody. Capacity is only 1,040. pic.twitter.com/dpvH0NNseJ
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 18, 2022
#BREAKING: The El Paso Airport has turned a portion of the facility into a holding center for illegal immigrants. Migrants are sleeping on the floor and throughout the airport. The city declared a state of emergency ahead of Title 42 expiring this week.https://t.co/07G2tcjXCV pic.twitter.com/GzJ1CExdZa
— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) December 19, 2022
You can certainly understand people’s desire to flee poverty-stricken, violence-plagued, unhealthy hellholes to come to the U.S. But tens of thousands at once? It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court accepts the argument of the border states that the influx of so many people would be a catastrophe not only for the immigrants but for residents of their states as well.
Conservative-leaning states have argued that lifting Title 42 will lead to a surge of migrants into their states and take a toll on government services like health care or law enforcement. They also charge that the federal government has no plan to deal with an increase in migrants — while in Washington, Republicans are set to take control of the House and make immigration a key issue.
Biden administration officials said they have marshaled more resources to the southern border in preparation for the end of Title 42. That includes more border patrol processing coordinators, more surveillance and increased security at ports of entry.
Don’t sell the court short when it comes to accepting reality in lieu of legal principles. The court may give the states more time to prepare for the influx of humanity or perhaps order the federal government to make good on its promise “to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way.”
The justices don’t want blood on their hands. And that’s what they may have unless they find a way to keep Title 42 in place.
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