Large number of migrants enter U.S. illegally days before potential Title 42 removal

Bill Melugin/Twitter

As the crisis at the United States southern border drags on, Eagle Pass, Texas continues to be a location experiencing large numbers of illegal border crossings. A tweet from Bill Melugin shows U.S. Border Patrol encountering a group of 167 illegal immigrants.

Good morning from Eagle Pass, TX. This is what remains of a group of 200+ that crossed illegally earlier this morning. Border Patrol has already transported chunks of the group away. Eagle Pass continues to be inundated with large groups like this. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/5Vc7pcAVqW

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 20, 2022

The U.S. southern border has been seeing increases in illegal crossing activity during the 2022 fiscal year in not only the Del Rio Sector, where Eagle Pass is located, but also in the Yuma Sector.

As of May 20, 2022, the U.S. Border Patrol reports that in the current fiscal year, they have engaged in 1,219,920 total encounters with illegal migrants. The entire previous fiscal year saw 1,662,167 illegal migrant encounters with the U.S. Border Patrol.

The Biden administration announced that Title 42, a policy from the Trump administration that allows border patrol to expel illegal migrants without them being able to apply for asylum on the basis of health concerns related to Covid-19, will be repealed on May 23. There have been negative responses from multiple congressmen, border patrol units, and NGOs, stating that the repeal of Title 42 will make the border crisis worse due to incentivizing illegal crossings.

Although the Biden administration planned on officially repealing Title 42 on May 23, more than 20 states have joined a lawsuit seeking to block that from happening according to reporting from NPR.