(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) President Joe Biden authorized the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to call reserve troops to active duty for anti-drug missions at the southwest border as Title 42 is set to expire.
Title 42 was put in place by former President Trump to prevent the spread of COVID among American citizens from people illegally entering the country. However, those restrictions will be lifted on May 11, according to a White House memo published on Monday, leading U.S. authorities to fear an overflow of immigrants and drugs, including fentanyl, will be smuggled into the country.
In a late response to the crisis that administration policies have created, the open borders president’s latest directive gives the DOD authority to pull as many reserve members as needed to “ensure” its support can “properly sustain” DHS efforts to thwart drug trafficking, the Daily Caller reported.
The order provided no specifics on when or how many reserves could be brought up, and Pentagon officials declined to add any information when asked by about the deployment.
Anticipating the Title 42 switch, nearly 7,000 immigrants on Thursday endured torrential rains to cross the U.S. border into Brownsville, Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico, reported Breitbart. One of the biggest challenges faced by officials was the lack of adequate detention facilities.
The surge in illegal alien crossings is overwhelming existing facilities, leaving more than 19,000 migrants in temporary detention facilities waiting to be processed. The majority of those, over 7,000, were being held in detention centers within the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., acknowledged the issues confronting authorities at the border under the tone-deaf Biden administration, before the reserves were called.
Scott introduced legislation on Wednesday that would redirect $15 billion to bolster security along the southern border instead of hiring an army of new IRS agents.
“While President Biden continues to drop the ball, I’m introducing legislation to fund border infrastructure and give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need to help stop the unaddressed flows of illicit goods and persons into this country,” Scott said.
Biden’s open border policies have given rise to drug cartels who are taking advantage of the situation by smuggling deadly narcotics inside the U.S., drawing heat from Republicans. These cartels are not only fueling the opioid crisis, but also pose a grave threat to national security.
Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Anne Milgram cautioned Republican members of a House Appropriations Committee panel during a budget hearing on Thursday that the drug cartels responsible for bringing fentanyl into this country are ruthless and extremely violent criminal enterprises.
According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 70% of the 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021 were due to synthetic opioids.
