Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Military Department’s mass migration response exercises to be conducted along Texas’ border with Mexico. This order is in response to the Biden Administration’s plans for cancelling the Title 42 coronavirus prevention protocol. According to a federal estimate, this will drive the already record-setting number 8,000 migrants to more like 18,000 per day.
Governor Abbott spoke during Wednesday’s afternoon press conference in Weslaco. He stated that the National Guard would begin mass migration rehearsals tomorrow (Thursday), to prepare for what we anticipate to be a mass influx of people crossing the border. All troopers and the National Guard will be equipped in riot gear for any case of violence similar to that which occurred in Mexico.
According to the governor, federal officials believe that the end of Title 42 could result in more than 500,000 migrants crossing the border from Mexico each month. The five Texas-based Border Patrol sections have historically accounted for 60 to 70% of all migrant crossings. This would require Texas to be prepared for more than 300,000. That’s roughly the same as the population of Corpus Christi.
Breitbart Texas reviewed a DHS contingency planning section. It contained a section entitled Critical Assumptions. Officials noted that “ICE ATD [Alternative To Detention] will now be implemented on an even greater scale.”
ATD allows for faster processing speeds and throughput. However, there have been very few FMUA who reported for removal proceedings after being released on ATD. It is not clear that noncitizens will be reporting for removal proceedings in future, regardless of how quickly they are processed.
Further down, in the section on Critical Assumptions, officials stated:
The current pathways for removal will be restricted. To ensure the humane and effective treatment of migrants, it is necessary to use broad-scale release mechanisms such as Own Recognizance (OR), with issuance of Notice to Appear (NTA), parole and Altematives for Detention (ATD), with administrative tools.
This section’s footnote clarifies that DHS believes traditional screening methods will be overwhelmed. Instead, DHS will concentrate on “increasing large-scale release techniques.”
Border Patrol reports that over a million migrants have been apprehended in this fiscal year revealed more than 1,000,000 unofficially. CBP reports that Border Patrol agents arrested nearly 137,000 FMUAs between October 1, 2021 and February 28, 2022 under Title 8 authority. This is an increase of around 36 percent over the previous year. Additional 53,000 FMUAs were also processed under the Title 42 sunsetting authority and returned to Mexico, or their country of birth. These FMUAs have been released to the general public, and most of them will not be present for ICE removal proceedings, as required by their release.
Additional 53,000 FMUAs were processed by the Title 42 authority, and returned to Mexico or their countries of origin. This category of migrants would be added to the release once Title 42 has been terminated.
Governor Abbott spoke Wednesday at a press conference. Breitbart reported that Abbott also plans to transport migrants from Texas who have been released by federal officials to Washington, D.C.
The governor stated that they were taking them to the United States Capitol, where the Biden Administration can more quickly address the needs for the people who are allowed to cross our border. The governor signed the order to take the action by writing a letter to Chief Nim Kid at TDEM.
Abbott stated that Texasans possess a backbone, and the will to protect our borders. “Two things Joe Biden doesn’t have.”
Governor Biden stated that the Biden administration has already begun busing migrants who have been released from the border regions to San Antonio.
He said, “I have a better idea.” Instead of busing them to San Antonio, let us continue the journey — all the way to Washington, D.C.
Abbott also directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS) to immediately start additional safety inspections of vehicles that enter Texas from Mexico. DPS Director Colonel Steve McCraw stated that inspections will begin on Wednesday at 4 pm — just after the end of the press conference.
