Title 42 Expiration Reinforces Need for Biden Administration to Enforce Immigration Laws and Use Available Detention Facilities, Tracking Tools and Other Alternatives to Detention

WASHINGTON, DC – Title 42, the Covid-era policy that enabled border patrol agents to immediately expel migrants trying to cross the border, expired last night at 11:59pm EDT. With the expected flood of people seeking to cross our nation’s southern border illegally as a result of the policy’s expiration and the news that the Biden administration will “begin releasing illegal immigrants ‘en masse’ without tracking technology or court dates,” Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) President Jeffrey Mazzella released the following statement:

“Our nation’s southern border is in the midst of a crisis, with border patrol agents having encountered well over a million illegal migrants since the start of the fiscal year. Yet, our nation’s existing immigration laws and procedures remain recklessly unenforced by the Biden administration.

“Recent reports have confirmed that at-capacity border patrol agents are releasing migrants into the streets rather than detaining them or utilizing Alternatives to Detention (ATD) with tracking. To make matters worse, some of those non-detained migrants have known gang affiliations. 

“Currently, roughly 25,000 migrants are detained at ICE facilities, even though ICE Director Tae Johnson testified recently before Congress that 34,000 bed spaces currently remain available. That means that some 9,000 beds sit empty while border patrol agents are so overwhelmed they let migrants go free once they cross the border. Every bed available should be utilized, especially during the expected surge in border crossings as a result of Title 42’s expiration.  When detention centers reach capacity, border patrol should employ ATD with tracking rather than letting migrants crossing the border illegally run free. 

“The Biden administration’s inefficient use of readily available detention centers and failure to enforce our immigration laws by allowing migrants to go free once they cross the border is signaling to dangerous individuals that our borders are wide open. The available beds have already been paid for by taxpayer dollars. There’s no justification for detention centers to not operate at maximum capacity, or for tracking technology and other resources not being utilized when our border is so overwhelmed.”

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