Increase in migrant crossing along United States southern border

By Johanna-Rosalye

PHOENIX, AZ – Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act, a code that allows for the suspension of entry of individuals into the United States to protect public health, set forth by the Trump administrator is scheduled to end this Wednesday, December 21st.

In the past weeks, migrants from Latin American countries have been traveling toward the southern borders in anticipation of the expiration of Title 42 to enter the United States in hopes of seeking asylum under Title 8, the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Department of Homeland Security warns that anyone ineligible for asylum will face charges and deportation for crossing the border illegally.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered an average of seven-thousand crossings daily along the southern border, with the leading countries of immigration being El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. A total of 2,378,944 encounters were reported for the 2022 fiscal year, a seventy-two percent increase from the 2021 fiscal year and a reported 230,678 encounters for October 2022 to begin the 2023 fiscal year. November and December numbers have not yet been reported which are expected to have increased.

A state of emergency has been issued by Yuma County Chairman Tony Reyes to address the health and humanitarian border crisis along the U.S. and Mexico border as the county faces a “triple threat” of Covid-19, RSV and flu cases with the increasing number of migrant crossings, all while challenging Yuma’s local healthcare resources. The Yuma sector made more than three-hundred thousand apprehensions in the 2022 fiscal year alone. It is anticipated that number will increase by 40 percent or more upon the expiration of Title 42.

The proclamation issued by the chairman went on to say that “the increased numbers if asylum seekers and migrants will place a severa strain on the federal and state resources, non-profit organization and others providing humanitarian and healthcare services…there are no shelters currently activated to accommodate asylum seekers and migrants, increasing the likelihood of their released into the streets of Yuma County.”

Bipartisan lawmakers appealed to extend Title 42 amid the border crisis, a request that was denied by a federal appeals court on Friday in Washington, D.C.. Lee Gelert, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations on the case, stated that “Title 42 must end because it is a public health law, not a border management tool.” Unless the case is presented before the U.S. Supreme Court, Title 42 is on schedule to expire this coming Wednesday, December 21st.