National Border Patrol Council Vice President Art Del Cueto told Newsmax Wednesday that while the Supreme Court's decision to keep Title 42 in place for now is "very helpful," it's still a "small victory" in the grand scheme of things.
"The problem is a lot of these individuals that are in charge — the White House and people within the agency, the administration — they need to make the right policies in order to stop this crisis," Del Cueto said during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report."
"When this administration took over, the average was about 1,000 apprehensions a day," he continued, referring to migrants detained at the southern border. "Then it quickly rose to 5,000. Right now the agency is looking at about 8,000 apprehensions a day, and the even bigger problem is not just the apprehensions — it's what's getting released."
"The crisis is bigger than just Title 42, and people need to start taking it serious," he added.
Del Cueto said that drug cartels are taking advantage of and, in some cases, creating chaos at the southern border in order to move drugs into the United States.
"The drug cartels know what's happening," he said. "They know that they can send a big group in one area like El Paso, at this time, and then it will move agents in the El Paso area so they can bring drugs across."
In a 5-4 decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump-era health edict known as Title 42 will remain in place for months while legal challenges play out.
The Supreme Court has taken up the case to consider whether 19 states could challenge the policy's end as sought by the Biden administration.
Title 42 allows border officials to swiftly expel migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border and has been used 2.5 million times since March 2020.
"If anything ... continuing of Title 42 gave the agency at least a little bit of time," Del Cueto said. "Let's say they remove it, here's the bigger issue: the agency doesn't have a plan on how to take care of the problem afterwards."
"I fear that this is something we're going to see for a long, long time, and it's something that's going to affect us for decades to come unless people start taking it seriously," he added. "Politicians need to have that political will to stop this."
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