Title 42 scheduled to end Dec. 21: What does it mean for Houston?

A controversial immigration policy called Title 42 is set to end in just one week.

The policy was put into place in March 2020 as a public health measure to stop the spread of COVID-19. But, now, many worry about what the program ending could mean for already growing crowds of migrant people at our border.

"Over the weekend, we had a steady flow of migrants that ended up being over 7,000 migrants in a span of three days, an average of 2460 a day," Orlando Marrero-Rubio, with the El Paso Sector of U.S. Border Patrol, said.

SEE ALSO: Houston takes part in decompressing migrant surge in El Paso ahead of Title 42 end date

"At the point, they are released, they don't even have a charging document. It hasn't been provided to them yet," Houston immigration attorney Rebekah Rodriguez explained. "They just say, 'Go and turn yourself in at the local office, wherever you arrive.' So, if that's Houston, they make them some random appointment in two or three months, and at that point, they're still waiting six, seven months, or over a year."

When Title 42 ends Wednesday, the U.S. government will likely start taking in more migrant people.

SEE ALSO: What is Title 42? How will it impact the Texas-Mexico border?

"They haven't built enough facilities. They do not have enough court personnel," Rodriguez added. "They do not have enough asylum personnel to handle that influx."

There are multiple appeals that have already been filed, both from the Biden administration and several states, including Texas.

But, for now, federal, state, and local authorities are preparing for the policy to end on Dec. 21.

SEE ALSO: Border Patrol braces for increase in migrant crossings as Title 42 extended temporarily

"It's a coordination that's done daily. So, to say that we're not going to transfer migrants in a safe manner to Houston, that would be lying because that could happen tomorrow, the day after, or we can not send people to Houston," Marrero-Rubio explained.

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