Former Obama Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson warned Sunday that unmanageable numbers of illegal immigrants will pour across the southern border if the Biden Administration lifts the Title 42 public health authority.
The measure, which Biden intends to scrap in May, has effectively served as border control, allowing federal immigration officials to swiftly return around two million illegal immigrants to their home countries over the past two years.
Without it, it is conservatively estimated that numbers of migrants reaching the border will increase three fold to 18,000 per day.
Appearing on CBS News, Johnson warned that “Numbers at these levels are difficult to handle on the southern border,” adding “Communities on the southern border, catholic charities, the volunteers, difficult to absorb these types of numbers under almost any scenario.”
“It’s challenging for the Border Patrol, for ICE to properly process and track these individuals. And, obviously, the Biden administration is paying a political cost for these,” Johnson added.
Johnson declared that he “would have argued that we should keep it in place just a little while longer, until perhaps July, when these numbers do tend to slow down in the hotter weather,” adding that “March, April, May tend to be the peak seasons for migration on our southern border.”
“DHS will have a challenge. And I heard the current secretary the other day say at present they have something like 7,000 a day,” Johnson urged, adding “That’s a high number.”
Johnson asserted that “we have to address the underlying causes in Central America for these types of surges.”
Read More: Former Obama DHS Head Warns Of “Major Influx” Of 18,000 Illegal Immigrants PER DAY
