(Headline USA) Mexican border agents are ready to quit their jobs if President Joe Biden moves forward with repealing Title 42, a public health order that allowed U.S. border officials to immediately turn away migrants caught crossing the southern border illegally.
Title 42 helped deter surges of migration to the U.S. through Mexico because migrants knew they would be immediately sent home if they were caught, border agents, a part of Mexico’s immigration forces, told the New York Post. If it is lifted, tens of thousands of migrants will restart their trek towards the border, which will overwhelm U.S. and Mexican officials alike.
The situation at the border is already bad, one agent explained.
“Work has doubled and even tripled for us. Some weeks we have no days off,” one Mexican officer with the National Migration Institute, which is Mexico’s version of the U.S. Border Patrol, said.
“We pull in double shifts for the same pay and are sent from one end of the country to the other with less money for our expenses that we must pay up front.”
On one team alone, half of the 30 officers have quit over the past two years, Jorge added.
“It’s a nationwide phenomenon,” he said.
The situation has become even more dire in recent weeks, as Mexican agents have had to deal with angry and violent mobs of migrants.
“They sprayed the vehicle with bullets, with the officers inside,” another former Mexican border agent, identified as Jorge, said of migrants. “Some of the local Mexicans, taxi drivers, turn to human smuggling. They are called ‘polleros.’ This is [also] a war between Immigration [officers] and the local people.
“This is already making things worse for us,” he continued. “Those new immigrants coming in are more violent. They are bigger than us. We Mexicans are smaller. We need at least two officers to detain them. We can’t handle them one on one.”
At least one major migrant caravan is preparing to head through Mexico to reach the U.S.’s southern border by the time Title 42 expires. Republicans have warned the Biden administration that more will follow if the policy is not extended.
