The administration has been intensifying its preparations for the end of the current regulation for days, including the deployment of 1,500 soldiers on the southern border
Title 8, a policy that allows for “removing people very quickly,” will come into effect next week. (Photo: Gettyimages)
Migrants entering the US illegally would be deported, Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday after a visit to the country’s southern border.
The official confirmed this at a news conference in Brownsville, Texas, days after repealing Title 42, a public health policy that has been in use since 2020 to quickly deport asylum seekers.
“The border is not open. It was not open and will not be open after May 11th. And smugglers who exploit vulnerable migrants spread misinformation. They spread lies to lure vulnerable people to the southern border and those people are only being pushed back,” he was quoted as saying by Fox News.
The government has been intensifying its preparations for the end of the current regulation for days, including the deployment of 1,500 soldiers on the southern border and the establishment of immigration centers throughout Latin America.
He stressed that Title 8, a policy that allows “persons to be removed very quickly” and includes a re-entry ban and criminal prosecution, will be applied starting next week.
Under this rule, migrants would theoretically be barred from applying if they cross the border illegally and fail to apply for asylum in a country they have already traveled through.
With this norm, the consequences will be tougher, Mayorkas noted.
“To the people who are thinking of emigrating: don’t think that the smugglers (…) will cheat them and risk their lives and savings only to find a consequence on our southern border that they do not expect,” said he claims.
A Department of Homeland Security official also told the press Friday that the number of deportation flights had increased in recent months and that they would continue under Title 8.
Earlier news reports said the military’s deployment to the border is at the request of the Department of Homeland Security and the troops will remain there for 90 days.
Troy Miller, the top official at US Customs and Border Protection, recently told Congress that his agency expects up to 10,000 migrants to arrive daily after Title 42 ends, nearly doubling the daily average in March.
