Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said the Mexican cartels are preparing to flood the United States’ southern border with between 700,000 and one million illegal immigrants when Title 42 is lifted in an effort to overwhelm U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“I just got off the phone with a county supervisor from my state, sits right on the border. They just had a briefing with the sector chiefs from San Diego through Yuma to Tucson, and they are told that there’s between 700,000 and a million people massing south of the border that when Title 42 goes away, the cartels have planned to overwhelm the system,” Biggs said during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room.
Rep. Biggs said the CBP does not have enough resources or personnel to “keep them in detention and processing facilities.”
“When those facilities get full…they’re going to just take pictures. They’re not even going to do full on processing. They’re going to take pictures. If we’re lucky fingerprints, [but] probably not even that,” Biggs warned. “And then they’re going to release them right into the local communities along the border.”
“It will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Biggs added.
Biggs said CBP officials are telling locals, “I’m sorry. You’re screwed.”
READ MORE: Biden ending Title 42 soon; could bring 400K migrants a month, officials say
In March, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz testified that his agency does not have “operational control” over the nation’s borders after months of a record surge in illegal immigration.
When Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) asked Ortiz during a congressional hearing if the Department of Homeland Security has “operational control of our entire border,” Ortiz replied, “No, sir.”
Ortiz’s admission contradicted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who said “we do” have operational control over the entire U.S. border during a hearing in April.
In both instances, Ortiz and Mayorkas were shown the U.S. government’s technical definition of “operational control,” which “means the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States.”
Title 42 refers to Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which confers the U.S. government with certain authorities in the name of public health, social welfare and civil rights. Under 42 U.S. Code § 265, the U.S. can block entry into the country by people coming from areas of known disease outbreaks.
President Donald Trump enacted 42 U.S. Code § 265 during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, which gave the U.S. the added ability to automatically expel people who crossed the border illegally.
