you re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour at the u.s./mexico border. it s been three days since the end of title 42, the pandemic-era policy that slowed the number of migrants allowed into the u.s. with thursday s expiration, many border communities were bracing for a surge of migrants. at least for now, that has not happened yet. homeland security officials say there were about 4,200 encounters yesterday. that s a big drop from the day before. and yesterday s numbers are less than half of the 10,000 seen at the u.s./mexico border in the days before title 42 ended. just minutes ago, we heard from president biden as he completed a bike ride. here s what he had to say about the situation down at the border. how do you think things are going at the board, sir? much better than you all expected. do you have any plans to visit the border? pardon me? do you have any plans to visit the border? not in the near term, no. no. it wou
Safely, orderly, and to be able to offer their children a space where they can be safe. that s all they re looking for. and so i think that s what we re seeing, you know? families, children. and, yes, of course a lot of young men that are entering. i think all of this has to do with the fact that title 42 just attracted them to come because it s going to be lifted and they re going to have a chance to enter. so now they re seeing the reality that it s not quite that so, you know. you enter, and if you don t do it correctly, you could very easily be deported back to your country. some border officials are cautioning that a surge could come later with perhaps up to 14,000 migrants arriving every day. is that the kind of estimate that you are getting prepared for. i can see all of those chairs behind you. are you prepared if the numbers were to spike in the coming days? yes. well, we definitely are. we have been prepared. we worked together with the city government, county government,
Crisis on the texas border surge of unaccompanied minors. you remember that. that was nine years ago. so this has been going on for a really long time. we ve had now three administrations that dealt with it. i m very biased in my observation as i think we had this issue in hand four years ago with the programs that we had place. the message was clear. it s not just a casual walk across the border to get into the united states. and so i think you have to go back to some really strict enforcement of the border. you have to have a system in place where you can allow for legal immigration, and you have to have these countries south of the border working with you. and i think we may have failed there more often than we were successful in getting these
That president biden has expanded in an unprecedented way. and then there s a consequence if one does not use those lawful pathways. reporter: now, mayorkas also said it s too early to say whether there has been a peak yet in the surge of migrants. but of course there are other challenges facing this administration amid the lifting of title 42, including capacity issues at the cbp facilities. arlette, the country is also facing this looming deadline on the debt ceiling. what did the president have to say about that today? reporter: yeah, president biden struck an optimistic tone. he said that he is likely meeting with congressional leaders on tuesday, though added that his team is still working out the final details for timing. but he also said that he ultimately believes that they will be able to reach an agreement when it comes to the debt limit. take a listen. what i ve learned a long time ago and you know as well as i do, it never is good to characterize a negotiation in th
You re live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. we begin this hour at the u.s./mexico border. it s been three days since the end of title 42, the pandemic-era policy that slowed the number of migrants allowed into the u.s. with thursday s expiration, many border communities were bracing for a surge of migrants. at least for now, that has not happened yet. homeland security officials say there were about 4,200 encounters yesterday. that s a big drop from the day before. and yesterday s numbers are less than half of the 10,000 seen at the u.s./mexico border in the days before title 42 ended. just minutes ago, we heard from president biden as he completed a bike ride. here s what he had to say about the situation down at the border. how do you think things are going at the board, sir? much better than you all expected.