Despite a temporary respite, border towns fully expect to see hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants flood through their streets and deep into the US as early as the end of this week.

The Supreme Court late on Monday issued a temporary administrative stay which prevents Title 42 from being lifted. The order also required that the White House file a response by 5 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

Title 42, which was a public health order issued by the Trump administration in 2020, allows illegal immigrants to be expelled from the US to prevent the spread of COVID. Since then, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ordered Title 42 to be lifted by December 21 of this year.

In anticipation of the law being lifted, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser on Saturday announced a state of emergency. And, despite the temporary stay, said in a later press conference, “We’re going to continue to proceed as if it was being lifted.”

Leeser said border patrol is reporting 20,000 illegals waiting across the border if Title 42 is lifted. He also told the press that there are 10,000 cops ready to deal with the wave of people, along with food, blankets, and medical supplies.

The federal government has given the city of El Paso $6 million dollars in anticipation of the border crisis and Leeser is making every city facility available.

“Wednesday will be here pretty quick and we want to make sure that whatever Wednesday brings, the city of El Paso is ready and that our citizens and our visitors are completely safe,” said Leeser.

El Paso is also coordinating with other cities like Dallas, Houston, and Denver to provide chartered buses that will transport illegals to major airports. “They’re not staying in El Paso,” Lesser says of asylum seekers. “We’re trying to get them to the destination of their choice.”

When questioned about the daily cost of housing, feeding, and transporting illegal immigrants, Lesser said it’s not an expense for El Paso tax payers. He added “it’s something that the federal government will have to work out because we can’t continue to go at this rate,” accommodating thousands of people, costing millions of dollars.

During a White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized that the Biden administration is asking congress for $3.5 billion dollars for border security. Jean-Pierre repeatedly pointed to republicans saying, “If they’re serious about the border,” they’ll provide the funds.

When asked whether president Biden will visit the border, Jean-Pierre said the president's focus is on “making sure there are resources” and again placing it at the feet of republicans.

Jean-Pierre also said, “it would be wrong to think that the border is open. It is not open.” This is despite the fact that thousands of illegal migrants are streaming across the border daily and El Paso has had a 280% increase in illegal crossings.

A FAIR analysis reported that nearly 4.9 million illegal aliens have crossed the border since Biden took office. And unprecedented amounts of drugs and criminals are coming across the border as well.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin tweeted on December 20:

NEW: Elite trackers with @TxDPS arrested three illegal immigrants from Honduras who were smuggling 2.04 lbs of fentanyl pills & 172 lbs of marijuana as they snuck through the extremely remote terrain of the Big Bend sector in west TX. One smuggler was only 14 years old.

In contrast to the emphasis on funding coming from the White House, Chad Wolf, the Former Acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security sent a letter to Congressional appropriators asking them not to approve more funds to DHS.

In the letter, Wolf says, “Today’s crisis is not the result of a lack of resources; it is the result of a flawed policy agenda. There is no amount of money that can solve this crisis if the underlying failed policies remain unchanged.”

It is not yet determined whether Title 42 will remain in place but the temporary stay may continue to extend its expiration if the court doesn’t quickly come to a decision. If Title 42 is ultimately lifted, border concerns will continue to escalate.

Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) tweeted:

Under Pres. Biden’s watch, there have been more than 4 MILLION illegal crossings into America via our southern border.

 

Without Title 42, that number is going to increase dramatically—because the president has no plan to stop it.