The Biden administration appears set to oversee the largest influx of migrants the country has ever seen in the wake of Title 42’s termination.
Title 42 — enacted under former President Trump’s administration as a COVID-19 public health emergency measure — allowed officials extra latitude to detain and expel migrants that entered the United States unlawfully.
Many observers wondered what Title 42’s expiration, which occurred on May 11, would mean for the thousands of migrants claiming to be asylum seekers already massed at the country’s southern border attempting to enter the United States.
Details of the Biden administration’s latest immigration plan, which utilizes a phone app called CBP One, indicates that those thousands will be coming over the border in unprecedented numbers, per a CBS News report.
Beginning in June, CBP One, which self-identified asylum seekers have used to schedule a lawful border crossing appointment, will significantly expand its capacity to facilitate nearly 40,000 entries every month.
The Biden administration has portrayed the program and its expansion as a way to discourage unlawful border crossings.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Erin Heeter, told The Dallas Express in an email that expansion of CBP One “cuts out smugglers while also providing a safe, orderly, and humane process for noncitizens to access ports of entry instead of attempting to enter the United States unlawfully.”
Heeter added, “We are continuing to enforce consequences for migrants who cross unlawfully, and those who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
Recently impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took issue with the planned CBP One expansion and, in May, sued DHS for allegedly disregarding the laws requiring the vetting of asylum claims and essentially facilitating an open-door policy.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that once they enter in such large numbers, the migrants would become a massive burden on communities in Texas and across the country that would have to deploy and stretch their public service resources to accommodate them.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) characterized the CBP One program as “a concierge service for illegal immigrants” in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in March.
Still, some migrant advocates have been critical of the program because not all migrants have smartphones and internet access to use the CBP One app, as reported in a piece by Time.
For instance, a pro bono legal service group for migrants called Project Corazon would like the program to be more accessible.
