Political | Process

The Biden administration is under growing pressure from immigrant advocates — and leaders of the president’s own party to drop the pandemic border restrictions known as Title 42.

For more than two years, immigration authorities have quickly expelled migrants under restrictions that were first authorized by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention during the Trump administration, without giving them a chance to seek asylum in the U.S.

The CDC’s latest review of whether the Title 42 restrictions are still necessary is expected to end on Wednesday, according to court filings.

A decision to lift those restrictions “will likely cause a significant increase in arrivals” at the southwest border, according to a strategic plan released Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security.

“We need to be prepared for what we’re considering a potential contingency, which is that the lifting of Title 42 could increase flows,” said a senior DHS official during a background briefing with reporters.

The strategic planning document lays out possible DHS responses to a wide range of projections if Title 42 is lifted. In one such scenario, DHS officials say they’re preparing for the possibility of 18,000 border apprehensions per day more than twice the average number of daily apprehensions last summer.

“These aren’t projections,” the official said. “They are just simply scenarios that we are planning against, so that we can be prepared.”

DHS officials says they are already taking steps to prepare for a possible increase in migration. They’ve established a Southwest Border Coordination Center, and say they are prepared to surge additional immigration officers and resources to the border.

The agency is already building additional temporary facilities at the border that can hold additional migrants, another senior official said in a statement.