More than three years after President Trump signed the Title 42 public health order, the federal government will stop using the order to rapidly expel illegal immigrants after its expiration at the end of Thursday.
Federal authorities will instead apply consequences via the regular immigration laws found in Title 8. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that it is prepared to handle a possible surge of unlawful border crossings with “deterrence, enforcement, and diplomacy.”
However, the department pointed the finger at Congress for “repeatedly failing to fix” the “broken immigration system.”
“Individuals who cross into the United States at the southwest border without authorization or without having used a lawful pathway, and without having scheduled a time to arrive at a port of entry, will be presumed ineligible for asylum, absent an applicable exception,” DHS warned.
“If removed, they will be barred from re-entry for at least five years and subject to potential criminal prosecution for repeated attempts to enter unlawfully.”
DHS said it is opening “regional processing centers” and hundreds of U.S. military personnel are being sent to the southern border. Gov. Greg Abbott announced a “tactical border unit” would be deployed at the state level, and alleged Biden’s troops would merely be doing “paperwork.”
Federal authorities will also be working to “counter misinformation” and will continue to employ the app used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to arrange asylum claim hearings.
Jurisdictions near the border including Brownsville, El Paso, and Laredo have declared states of emergency to respond to an onslaught of illegal immigration due in part to the perception that the border is open.
Republican attorneys general successfully forestalled the end of the Title 42 policy by filing myriad lawsuits and securing injunctions blocking the Biden administration’s efforts to end the order.
The Biden administration, including DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, defended the measure as a public health necessity rather than a border security measure.