Biden gloats border looks ‘much better than you all expected’ despite historic crossings
Emily Jacobs
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President Joe Biden gloated on Sunday that the situation at the southern border was going “much better than you all expected” after the expiration of Title 42.
Biden spent Sunday at his beach home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, along with First Lady Jill Biden and their daughter Ashley. Facing questions from reporters during a stop on an afternoon bike ride about the end of the pandemic-era policy that allowed border officials to turn away millions of migrants for the last three years, the president expressed satisfaction that Title 42’s expiration had not led to an immediate surge.
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“Much better than you all expected,” Biden replied when asked how he thought the border was looking, later adding that while the number of illegal crossings had gone down, “we have a lot more work to do, we need some more help from the Congress.”
Despite his claim, the number of crossings is still exorbitantly high, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopping over 10,000 migrants per day this week, the highest levels ever.
With Title 42 gone, the Biden administration policy returns to the decades-old immigration policy under a section of code known as Title 8. Those powers include allowing illegal immigrants to be punished in such a way that will render them ineligible to come to the country legally.
Many migrants have said they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border before Title 42’s expiration to avoid facing Title 8 concerns, which would explain the lack of a mass stampede at the border after the pandemic-era rule ended. Despite the highly anticipated post-Title 42 surge not materializing, the situation at the southern border is far from secure.
Footage captured on the ground in Yuma, Arizona, on Thursday evening showed hundreds of migrants lined up along the tall border wall to await processing.
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The president said Sunday that he did not plan to visit the border “in the near term,” arguing that, “It would just be disruptive.”
Anna Giaritelli contributed to this report.