Lankford Reveals DHS Plan for Title 42 Is to “Move People Into the Country Faster”; DHS Estimates 1 Million Crossings in 6 Weeks

On 3/31/2022, Senator James Lankford revealed that after a year of planning, DHS’s strategy for when Title 42 was lifted was simply to “move people into the country faster” — expediting illegal border crossers into the interior rather than enforcing immigration law. DHS’s own estimates projected one million illegal crossings within six weeks of ending Title 42. Lankford noted the first 14 months of the Biden administration had produced 2.3 million illegal crossings — the same total as all four years of Trump combined. A former Border Patrol chief called the numbers “unsustainable."

"Their Plan Is to Move People Faster”

Lankford described what DHS had presented to Congress. “I started addressing DHS to say, what is your plan when Title 42 goes away to replace it or to deal with enforcement?” Lankford said. “They’re now presenting their plan of what they’re going to do when they take Title 42 off.”

“Their plan is to move people into the country faster. That’s their whole plan,” Lankford said. “What they have worked on apparently for a year is to expedite people crossing the border and moving into the interior at a faster rate.”

Psaki confirmed the approach. When asked what gave the administration confidence a different result would happen, Psaki described moving “unaccompanied minors quickly out of Border Patrol custody” and reducing visible overcrowding. “As they talk about mass migration, they talk about how do we actually move people to the interior faster so they don’t get clogged up at the border and the images that all of you saw last summer don’t occur again,” Psaki said.

Lankford was blunt: “That is not a plan to help us with illegal immigration — it’s actually a plan to move people across the border faster.”

One Million in Six Weeks

Lankford cited DHS’s own projections. “DHS in its own numbers estimates — this is DHS from the Biden administration, its own numbers — a million people will illegally cross the border within six weeks at the moment that they drop Title 42,” Lankford said. “They’re aware of what they’re about to release. They’ve had a year to plan for it and they’ve chosen not to.”

2.3 Million — Equal to Four Years of Trump

Lankford provided devastating context. “Last year we had two million people that illegally crossed our border. It’s the highest number ever recorded,” he said. “If you take just the first 14 months of the Biden administration, 2.3 million people illegally crossed our border.”

“To put that in perspective, the first 14 months of the Biden administration had as many illegal crossings as the previous four years of the Trump administration did combined,” Lankford added.

”Unsustainable” — Former Border Patrol Chief

A former Border Patrol chief provided firsthand perspective. “We’re about to hit one million in six months,” the former chief said. “My highest year was 68,000 in the entire year, and that politically felt like the world was coming to an end. So these are very, very large numbers. They’re unsustainable in my view."

"Root Cause Is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue”

When asked about VP Harris’s role as the administration’s point person on root causes of migration, Lankford did not hold back. “I think we’ve identified the root cause of illegal immigration. It happens to be at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s the root cause,” Lankford said.

“If you talk to leadership in Central America, they will say they’re tired of America incentivizing their people to leave their country to come to the United States. It’s crushing the economy in Central America as workers are leaving,” Lankford said.

The Asylum System Exploit

A border analyst described the broken system. “People turn themselves in, claim asylum, knowing our broken asylum system will result in their being released into the interior, and told to show up for a court hearing months or even years in the future,” the analyst said. “A huge percentage simply don’t show up. And because of a failure of enforcement by ICE, they know they’re going to be able to stay.”

“Then you have the getaways — people who are up to no good. They know that if they put enough people on the border, it will overwhelm the Border Patrol’s capacity to simply process these migrants,” the analyst added.

Key Takeaways

Lankford revealed DHS’s plan for lifting Title 42 was to “move people into the country faster” — expediting crossers to the interior rather than enforcing immigration law.
DHS’s own estimates projected one million illegal crossings within six weeks of ending Title 42.
The first 14 months of Biden produced 2.3 million illegal crossings — the same as all four years of Trump combined.
A former Border Patrol chief called the numbers “unsustainable,” noting his peak year was 68,000 total.
Lankford said the “root cause” of illegal immigration was “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Transcript Highlights

The following is transcribed from the video audio (unverified — AI-generated from audio).

Their plan is to move people into the country faster. That’s their whole plan. What they worked on for a year is to expedite people crossing and moving to the interior faster.
DHS estimates a million people will illegally cross within six weeks of dropping Title 42.
The first 14 months of Biden had as many illegal crossings as the previous four years of Trump combined.
My highest year was 68,000 in the entire year. These numbers are unsustainable.
The root cause of illegal immigration is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
They know our broken asylum system will result in their being released into the interior.

Full transcript: 1154 words transcribed via Whisper AI.