Migrant Surge Strains U.S. Border Capacity Before End of Restrictions

US Border Patrol is using cellphones to speed up processing of illegal migrants crossing into Texas as the end of Title 42 approaches.
More than 20,000 migrants were in Border Patrol custody on Friday morning, more than twice the rated capacity of the agency's detention facilities along the southern border.
The latest surge has been driven by thousands of Venezuelan adults and children crossing the river into Texas in recent days by wading, swimming and cramming into smugglers' rafts.
Illegal crossings are expected to surpass 10,000 per day after May 11, the date the White House is planning to lift the emergency public health restrictions known as Title 42 that have been in place since March 2020.
Biden officials are anxious to avoid the kind of chaos they faced in Del Rio, Texas, in 2021 when thousands of mostly-Haitian migrants forded the Rio Grande to set up a makeshift camp that created a humanitarian emergency.