According to NBC News, U.S. officials quietly prepare for what they think could reportedly be the largest surge to cross the southern border in decades. The fears revolve around the lifting of the highly effective CDC Title 42.
On September 16, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a nationwide injunction on the CDC's border restriction that allowed for the immediate return of migrants who illegally crossed the southern border; the program was created to hinder the spread of Covid-19.
Sullivan stayed his order for 14 days meaning the ruling should take effect sometime today, barring any intervention from a higher court.
NBC reports that "The Biden administration has appealed the ruling and may still appeal to the Supreme Court if the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., does not intervene to stop it from taking effect."
The article adds that the information was first brought up on a call with senior DHS officials this week when Secretary Mayorkas reportedly asked whether the department "was prepared for a worst-case scenario in which 350,000 to 400,000 migrants cross the border in October?" NBC spoke to two DHS officials familiar with the conversation.
For context, if illegal border crossings reach that astronomical number in October, it would nearly double the two-decade record reached in July when Biden's CBP reported 210,000 alien encounters at the border.
NBC makes a point to say that "The two DHS officials stressed that the estimate is not based on internal intelligence or calculations, saying it is meant to prepare the agency," in case Title 42 is lifted.
However, the internal DHS call occurred the same week that Axios reports that the Central American nation of Panama warns the U.S. that another caravan as large as 60,000 predominantly Haitian migrants could be on its way to the southern border.
Recently the nation watched as approximately 30,000 Haitian migrants crossed into Del Rio, Texas, in just a week. DHS and the Biden Administration were supposedly taken by surprise. This is contradicted by the Panamanian Foreign Minister, Erika Mouynes, who "expressed frustration to Axios that the Biden administration seemed caught off guard by the migrant crisis because 'we sounded the alarm when we should have.'"
The Biden Administration stated that it would no longer apply the CDC's Title 42 to alien minors or a majority of family units. Under President Trump, the Title was applied to any migrant, no matter their classification or nationality.
NBC adds: "Sullivan's order would stop the Biden administration from expelling families under Title 42, allowing them instead to stay in the U.S. while they wait for their day in court to make asylum claims. Single adults, who were not part of the lawsuit brought before Sullivan, would remain subject to Title 42."
UPDATE OCTOBER 1st: Judge Sullivan’s order was vacated by the U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Thursday night. This means that the Biden Administration can continue to use Title 42 to quickly expel single alien adults and some family units entering the country illegally.
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