WASHINGTON: US border authorities have seen a 50 per cent drop in “encounters” with undocumented migrants crossing the southern border since the country’s Title 42 migration policy ended, the country’s homeland security chief said on Sunday.
“Over the past two days, the United States border patrol has experienced a 50 per cent drop in the number of encounters, versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said.
“We are in Day Three,” Mayorkas cautioned, adding “it is too early” to predict the rate of future crossings.
Title 42 allowed the United States to swiftly expel a wide array of migrants on public health grounds, but that authority ceased on Thursday when the government ended its declaration of Covid-19 as an official public health emergency.
Instead, the country has reverted back to an immigration law known as Title 8, as President Joe Biden’s administration tries to create a system that allows for expanded asylum and legal routes in some cases. — AFP
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