Biden Administration to Lift Title 42 at End of May, Despite Fears of Looming Migrant Wave

The Biden administration on Friday announced that it will be terminating the Title 42 public health policy, that has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to quickly expel migrants at the southern border since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, at the end of May – despite fears of a massive migrant wave in the coming months.

“After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the CDC Director has determined that an Order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary,” the Centers for Disease Control said in a statement.

The order was implemented by the Trump administration due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and has since been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to expel a majority of migrants at the border. While it is a public health order, not an immigration policy, it has become one of the central border policies in place as the U.S. faces a continuing crisis of numbers at the border. In February, approximately 55% of migrants were returned due to the order, rather than being released into the U.S.

Activists and left-wing Democrats have been calling for the Biden administration to end the order for months, claiming it is cruel and denied migrants due process.

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But Republican and moderate Democratic lawmakers, as well as law enforcement at the border, have expressed concern that it could lead to a surge in migration that could overwhelm agents and exceed the enormous numbers seen last year. Former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller said that ending Title 42 would “open the floodgates on a biblical scale.”

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Multiple Border Patrol officials have told Fox News that ending Title 42 would lead to what one agent described as a “surge on top of a surge” as word spreads among migrants that they will not be deported. There are also believed to be a considerable number of migrants waiting in Mexican cities waiting for Title 42 to drop.

“We are expecting to get wrecked,” one Border Patrol agent told Fox News Digital.

The order will end on May 23, giving the Department of Homeland Security time to prepare for what the Biden administration has admitted will be an “influx” in numbers at the border.

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Border Patrol agents have expressed skepticism that they can prepare for what DHS has estimated could be potentially up to 18,000 migrants a day, even as they are already overwhelmed and overcrowded with the numbers that are already at the border.

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