A new catch-and-release policy put in place by the Biden administration has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Florida just as Title 42 was about to be lifted, setting the stage for conditions on the border to get even worse than they already are. 

The temporary restraining order (TRO) was put in place by Judge T. Kent Wetherell at the request of Florida attorney general Ashley Moody, to prevent the administration from releasing migrants into the country without processing or detaining them.

In most cases, the migrants would need to be detained until their claims could be tried in court, which could take a very long time.

The current facilities for detaining migrants are likely to become overcrowded if catch-and-release cannot be used.

Will it work?

Despite the risk of overcrowding, in the absence of a catch-and-release policy, illegal immigration may decrease because people won't agree to pay smugglers thousands of dollars to get them into the country if they will likely be detained and unable to find work to pay the smugglers back.

Many illegal immigrants mortgage their homes and farms to get to the U.S., and they want to be able to pay them off so they aren't seized by the smugglers.

The lifting of Title 42 has emboldened illegal immigrants, but conditions won't stay that way if catch-and-release remains blocked for a long time.

Under former President Donald Trump, illegal immigrants were detained, and soon figured out that they would not be able to get work in the U.S.

As a result, immigration levels dropped to much lower levels, and Trump was also able to force many migrants to wait in Mexico for their hearings. This alleviated overcrowding at the border and kept numbers much lower, with few making it into the country in this manner.

10,000 migrants a day

On the other hand, Biden and his administration seem hell-bent on letting millions of illegal immigrants into the country every year with no good plan for keeping track of them or controlling the flow.

In the three days before Title 42 was lifted, 10,000 migrants per day came across the border, and it's not going to get any better from there.

Many argue that migrants' willingness to work for low wages is wanted and needed by Wall Street, but a recession seems about to start and those migrants may displace American workers.

In addition, the mass migration leads to housing shortages and rent increases because all these people need places to stay.

It would be good if catch-and-release were ended permanently, but it seems unlikely as long as Biden is in charge.