by Jennie Taer
The Biden administration is expected to announce a plan Thursday to have migrant processing centers south of the U.S.-Mexico border amid an influx of illegal immigration, CBS News reported late Wednesday.
The plan would allow migrants to have their screening interviews at the centers to determine whether or not they have legal claims to come to the U.S., according to CBS News, citing four sources with knowledge of the plan. The processing centers will be located in areas that migrants traverse frequently and in large numbers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) saw a record of more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022, and the situation is only expected to get worse.
The Biden administration is also set to announce its preparations for the end of Title 42, a Trump-era public health policy used to expel certain migrants who cross the border illegally, on May 11. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told members of congress April 18 that he expects an influx of migrants crossing the Southern border when the policy expires.
“We do anticipate a surge in the number of encounters at our southern border,” Mayorkas told the Senate Homeland Security committee.
The U.S. government has been in conversations with Colombia, Ecuador and Guatemala regarding setting up processing centers, according to CBS. Consular officials will be deployed to the centers and staff from the countries south of the border to determine whether migrants have legal claims.
Neither DHS nor U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) responded to requests for comment. The State Department also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
– – –
Jennie Taer is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
