On Friday, CNN admitted that there will likely be a “record-breaking surge of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border this spring.”
Host Brianna Keilar started by intoning, “New this morning: U.S. Officials are scrambling to prepare for a record-breaking surge of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border this spring. In a CNN exclusive interview the Chief of Border Patrol says he is bracing for a staggering 8,000 apprehensions a day.”
Keilar commented to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, “That is a huge number.”
“It’s not just a big number, but the Border Patrol chief, Raul Ortiz, told me that is the norm he is expecting over the next 30 to 45 days,” Alvarez responded. “So there’s a couple reasons why the concern is right now: number one, typically, border arrests go up in the warmer months and we’re heading into the spring so we’re already starting to see that happen; number two, we are waiting for a decision on a Trump-era pandemic emergency rule. What that rule did is allow authorities to turn people away at the border. We are waiting next week for a CDC decision whether that stays in effect. If it doesn’t, that means we go back to the traditional protocols, which would be releasing migrants, sometimes monitoring them when that happens, detaining them, or removing them if they don’t have an asylum claim.”
“But that takes processing; that takes time,” she declared. “And so what the Border Patrol has had to do is prepare for the event that there will be many more people coming in the next few weeks. And they are already, by the way, Brianna, over capacity. This week they had 16,000 people in custody in their facilities.”
CNN: Biden’s record border crisis is “record breaking” and a “staggering.”
“This is a huge number”
Border Patrol is predicting 8,000 apprehensions a day for the next 30-45 days. They’re predicting 240,000-360,000 illegals will cross. #BidenBorderCrisis
pic.twitter.com/t2OE4qR3dW— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 25, 2022
The CDC decision revolves around terminating the Title 42 order. “The White House and Homeland Security Department have said decisions on Title 42 rest with the CDC,” The Los Angeles Times reported, adding, “In a ruling this month in a lawsuit over the order, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, said: ‘There should be no disagreement that the current immigration policies should be focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19.’”
Last July, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), in introducing the SHIELD Act which promised to codify Title 42 — which required U.S. border officials to promptly remove illegal immigrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — blasted President Biden after reports had surfaced that Biden wanted to end Title 42. “This is lunacy,” said Cruz. “It is lawless and the only reason Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing it is because they are captive to the extreme radical left of their party.”
“You know the leading paper in Washington [The Washington Post] has as its slogan ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’” Cruz began. “Joe and Kamala want darkness on the disaster that they have created. And not only that, they’re proposing to make it worse. Joe Biden is now talking about ending Title 42.”
“Title 42 is the tool that has allowed us to prevent people with COVID from being released into this country,” Cruz explained. “We’re in a pandemic; Joe Biden likes to talk about what a priority he puts on the pandemic. Understand this: if the Biden administration ends Title 42, they will be releasing illegal immigrants in your community who are COVID-positive.”
“We’re seeing COVID positivity rates rise in South Texas; we’re seeing COVID positivity rising in Laredo; we’re seeing COVID positivity rising in San Antonio,” Cruz noted. “Just yesterday I spoke with the mayor of Uvalde, Texas, who said as a result of the illegal immigrants being released in Uvalde, they’re seeing COVID positivity spiking up and Biden want to release even more COVID positive illegal immigrants.”
“This is lunacy,” he snapped. “This week I introduced legislation, the SHIELD Act, with a number of senators up here to codify Title 42 to stop Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from releasing illegal immigrants in our communities who are positive for COVID. If you don’t want to see this pandemic come back with the Delta variant — most these illegal immigrants coming in haven’t been vaccinated. They’re being put in cages with other people who are COVID positive, they’re spreading COVID and then releasing COVID in our communities.”
‘This is lunacy,” he reiterated. “It is lawless and the only reason Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are doing it is because they are captive to the extreme radical left of their party. Everyone else who believes in common sense ought to say, enough is enough and let’s not make the pandemic worse by making this crisis at the border even worse than it already is.”