The clock struck midnight Friday morning, and Title 42 was allowed to lapse and expire. A relic of COVID-19 emergency powers used by the Executive Branch to lock the country down, Title 42 was a tool to limit the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. With that now gone, everyone expects a surge of migrants at the southern border and into the United States.

CBS News reports that the Biden administration is prepared, "Because it has relied on the rule for over three years, the US expects to see a sharp increase in migrant arrivals now that Title 42 has ended. To preempt the potentially historic spike in border crossings, the Biden administration has unveiled a web of policies that pair measures to deter migration, such as a restriction on asylum, with expanded opportunities for migrants to enter the US legally."

As you might expect, all Biden is offering up are rhetorical flourishes. The Biden Administration has taken the same actions since entering the White House. The result has been a humanitarian disaster. With the expiration of Title 42, that problem is set to worsen.

People set up camp at the border.

Other reporting by CBS News says that 60,000 migrants are sitting at the border, waiting for Title 42 to expire. US Border Patrol was already overwhelmed, "As of Thursday, nearly 25,000 migrants were in Border Patrol holding facilities and tents, Ortiz said, despite the agency only having capacity on paper to hold several thousand individuals."

Further into the heart of Mexico, the New York Times reported on trains headed north to the US Border. The cars were filled with migrants looking to travel across the border after Title 42's expiration. The New York Times also interviewed people setting up camp on the Mexican side of the border, waiting for Title 42 to go away.

Republicans tried to solve this before it happened.

This train wreck was foreseen months ago, and Republicans tried to give the White House the power to continue utilizing Title 42. Democrats in the Senate blocked the measure, which included Senators Manchin and Sinema. US Border Patrol is expecting a humanitarian crisis. It's important to remember that Democrats had a chance to continue Title 42's use but chose instead to encourage a larger crisis at the border.

It's not just Republicans preparing for the end of Title 42. Democratic mayors like New York City's Eric Adams are preparing for a surge of migrants. Axios reports, "Officials expect that as many as 1,000 people per day will arrive in New York City when the federal policy ends." As a preemptive measure, Adams started bussing migrants out of the city into surrounding suburbs. Those suburbs promptly declared a state of emergency.

The Biden administration is resorting to empty threats, saying, "We have 24,000 Border Patrol Agents and Officers at the Southwest Border and have surged thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws. Do not believe the lies of smugglers."

Words and no action.

It's a nice statement by White House cabinet members. It's also utterly toothless, and no one believes this administration. All you have to do is look at the trains the New York Times sees or the tent cities popping up across the border. People expect to get across. There are more migrants than resources at the border.

Fox News adds that, legally speaking, Biden is already waving the white flag. "The head of US Border Patrol has sent out a memo authorizing the release of illegal migrants into the US without court dates if agents face overcrowding as the Biden administration scrambles to deal with a historic surge in migration at the border ahead of the end of Title 42."

A Florida judge has blocked this measure for now. US Border Patrol and the Biden administration attacked the judge's ruling, saying, "This is a harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding at CBP facilities and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants, and risks creating dangerous conditions for border patrol agents and migrants."

A never-ending humanitarian crisis.

That statement is nothing more than a tacit admission that the end of Title 42 will lead to a surge of illegal immigrants. The sole solution by the Biden administration is to allow those migrants free to prevent overcrowding. In the interim, they ask those migrants to return for a court date. Using the honor system at the US border is not security. It's a disaster.

A humanitarian crisis was a choice. Encouraging a surge in illegal immigrants at the southern border was a choice. Democrats were given the opportunity to make Title 42 a permanent tool of any White House. They turned it down.

There's no comprehensive immigration plan here. That's a disservice to Americans and the migrants at the border. The Biden administration has only achieved an increase in human suffering at the border. That's a disaster, even if the Biden administration refuses to say it.