Illegal border crossings surge to unprecedented high
Fox News' Bill Melugin reports from Eagle Pass, Texas, where 'several hundred' crossings were observed Wednesday morning.
House Republicans are eyeing a probe into whether President Biden and administration officials are planning to use Amtrak to transport illegal aliens from portions of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Nineteen GOP lawmakers on the House Transportation Committee say that with Biden eager to end Title 42, a pandemic emergency order to expel illegal aliens at the border, the public deserves answers over how the White House plans to deal with the surge in migration.
"We are concerned about the impact that a significantly greater border surge could cause to your services and the potential use of Amtrak in the administration’s response to its self-created border crisis," lawmakers on the panel wrote in a letter to Amtrak and administration officials on Wednesday.
Republicans, in particular, worry the White House is planning to utilize Amtrak to transport migrants from one section of the U.S-Mexico border to another for processing if immigration checkpoints are inundated with new arrivals.
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The Amtrak logo is seen on a train at Union Station in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 2022. ((Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images))
"Such a situation would cause disruptions for Amtrak customers as well as interrupt freight traffic that could further exacerbate the supply chain crisis," the lawmakers wrote. It "would also constitute an unconscionable use of significant amounts of taxpayer funds and resources to aid in the vast movement of illegal migrants into American communities."
GOP lawmakers on the transportation committee are requesting a briefing on any discussions that may have taken place between Amtrak officials and the White House on the topic.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Monday that there were 199,976 migrant encounters in July, taking the total so far this fiscal year to 1.946 million encounters. Last fiscal year, CBP encountered more than 1.7 million migrants in total attempting to traverse the border illegally.
The surging crisis has added excess pressure on immigration checkpoints across the southern United States. Many fear that when the Biden administration succeeds in scuttling Title 42, it will exacerbate the crisis.
Biden rescinded the order earlier this year, arguing it was no longer needed since the coronavirus had receded. A federal judge blocked the move, setting up a court battle on the topic which is still ongoing.
A Border Patrol agent walks between a gap along the border wall between the US and Mexico in Yuma, Arizona on June 1, 2022. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Legal experts believe, however, that the administration will eventually succeed in rescinding the order. Ending Title 42, even by the White House's own estimates, will cause illegal immigration to swell.
The Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies have been preparing for such a result. In April, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made public a memorandum outlining a "a whole-of-government plan" to deal with a surge in crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"When the Title 42 public health order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants," wrote Mayorkas.
President Biden speaks about inflation and supply chain issues in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
To deal with expected surge, DHS and other agencies have proposed placing additional personnel at border checkpoints to aid in processing migrants.
Plans have also been floated to use planes from the U.S. Marshall Service and buses from the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons to transport migrants inundated at immigration checkpoints to other areas of the border for processing.
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GOP lawmakers are concerned that administration officials might also have their eyes on Amtrak to help transport illegal migrants. The publicly-owned passenger rail company operates a route along the U.S.-Mexico border that stops directly at cities with immigration checkpoints, including Del Rio, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona.
A spokesman for Amtrak said the rail service was reviewing the letter and would respond to the lawmakers. The White House and DHS did not return requests for comment on this story.
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