Washington, D.C. (December 16, 2022) – The Center for Immigration Studies highlights key parts of the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to manage the surge of illegal immigration that is predicted to follow the ending of Title 42, the COVID-related public health order. DHS’s Update on Southwest Border Security and Preparedness Ahead of Court Ordered Lifting of Title 42 includes a “6-pillar” plan that contains the first public acknowledgement of the existence of a legally questionable program, revealed to the public by the Center in a November report, that pre-legalizes migrants before they get to the border. The Biden administration’s plan also includes a limited scale of wall construction.
 
Andrew Arthur, the Center’s resident fellow in law and policy, writes, “With the threat of a post-Title 42 border looming, the Biden administration has a newfound appreciation for border barriers and infrastructure. The problem is, its response will likely be too little and too late to forestall a humanitarian catastrophe.” Read more about potential wall construction here.
 
“Part of the Biden administration’s plan to deal with the upcoming Category 5 human hurricane barreling toward our border is the expansion of a secretive escort hand-off operation that they have been operating,” said Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow. “They are handing out “humanitarian parole” on a mass scale before migrants reach the border and then escorting them into the country. Interestingly, these legal hand-off crossings don’t add to the politically problematic apprehension statistics.” Read more about the DHS plan to pre-legalize migrants here.