Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued an April 1 statement on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's termination of the Title 42 order.
Mayorkas commented the department will be increasing its capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection. The goal is to increase personnel and resources as necessary and to redeploy more than 600 law enforcement officers to the southern border.
"Title 42 remains in place until May 23 and, until then, DHS will continue to expel single adults and families encountered at the southwest border," the statement said.
Mayorkas also said that as soon as the Title 42 order is no longer in force, DHS will process individuals found at the southern border in concordance with Title 8, which is the standard procedure used to put illegal immigrants into removal proceedings. He also clarified Title 42 is not an immigration enforcement group, but instead a public health authority utilized by the CDC to aid in stopping the spread of communicable diseases.
The strategy to deal with the potential influx of new immigrants will utilize the whole government, according to the statement.
