AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Communities along the border are facing an increase in migrants, as they prepare for a potential surge when Title 42 restrictions expire next week.

Title 42 allows Border Patrol agents to expel migrants seeking asylum. It’s a public health policy with roots in preventing the spread of disease. Former President Donald Trump invoked the policy to deter migration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the policy has been in place, more than two million migrants have been expelled, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. With the policy ending, thousands of people who were turned away after traveling to seek asylum are expected to try again to reenter the country.

At a news conference Wednesday in El Paso, local leaders officials commented they are anticipating around 12,000 to 15,000 migrants to cross the border before May 11.

Mayor Oscar Leeser said the migrants that roam the streets of El Paso are only passing through to other parts of the United States.

“They’re coming to the United States and our job will be to continue to help our asylum seekers get to the next destination. We will not send anybody to anywhere they don’t want to, so we’ll interview and make sure they don’t send them,” Leeser said.

Meanwhile, city officials are preparing temporary shelters at the vacant El Paso Independent School District schools and if necessary, the Civic Center. The City of El Paso can afford to open these shelters with the money they’ve received from the federal government.

“We have received $22.5 million to be able to do the job, and today, we still have $15 million that will continue to be used. This is not on the back of the local taxpayers,” Leeser added.

Officials said they are trying to help migrants get to their next destination by plane and bus on a daily basis.

“It’s not just about transporting those that don’t have a means to get to the unsponsored, it’s about transporting people to other hub locations so they can get a flight out of other airports. So, it might come across as two different transportations but that’s what the key is to decompress. Here locally and to get them onto a transportation hub where they can connect easier with flights,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino stated.

“The situation at the border is a very serious one, a very challenging one and a very difficult one,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Friday news conference in Brownsville.

Mayorkas spent two days in the Rio Grande Valley, meeting with local leaders and Border Patrol officials.

“The purpose of my trip is to review our operations and to see our planning for the end of Title 42 in action,” Mayorkas said.

Earlier this month, the Biden Administration announced plans to deploy 1500 active duty troops to assist Border Patrol along the southern border.

“The border is not open, it has not be open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11th,” Mayorkas added.

But the administration faces critics, both Democrats and Republicans, who say they’re not doing enough.

“After saying that the border is secure, then to send 1500 active duty military to the border is just a symbolic and empty symbolic gesture,” said U.S Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, during an interview at the Capitol.

He pointed out that the administration had said that the troops will be providing administrative support, not performing law enforcement functions or interacting with migrants.

Cornyn has called on Mayorkas to resign amid the continuing number of people crossing the southern border. He told reporters he believes the administration is not prepared for the surge that’s likely to come when Title 42 restrictions end.

“I’m afraid that we’re going to see what has been a flood of humanity coming across the border turn into a tsunami,” Cornyn said.

Protests over Texas bill to ban transition-related care for minors

Texas House Democrats on Friday leveled a successful procedural objection to Senate Bill 14, which would ban gender transition for minors. This is the second roadblock to the Republican priority legislation after a vote was delayed earlier in the week when opponents filled the chamber’s gallery in protest.

The bill was set for a vote Tuesday but the protests and a parliamentary move changed the plan.

As the debate started on Friday, Rep. Mary González, D-El Paso, raised a point of order as a procedural move in an attempt to block the bill. Her point of order was withdrawn, but the bill was sent back to the House Committee on Public Health to fix the challenged errors.

The bill will be back up for debate in the House next week, according to Calendars Committee Chairman Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, who decides which bills are discussed on the House floor and when.

“It won’t be watered down. It will pass and become law,” Burrows said.

On Tuesday, as lawmakers began to open debate on the bill on second reading, protesters in the gallery started chanting in opposition to the legislation. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan asked the Sergeant at Arms to clear the House gallery.

SB 14 would prohibit medical professionals from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to minors seeking to transition genders. The bill would also prohibit transition-related surgeries, though these are rarely performed on kids, according to a Politifact fact check.

Some medical groups and providers told lawmakers this care can be vital to the mental health of transgender youth during previous committee hearings on the bills. Transgender kids who are already accessing these treatments for gender-affirming purposes would have to be “weaned off” in a “medically appropriate” manner.

The Senate has already passed a version of the bill, and Republican leaders in the House have expressed confidence that it has broad support from the GOP majority amongst the lower chamber. On Tuesday, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, told radio talk show host Mark Davis he felt “very confident” the House would pass SB 14.

“I expect a handful of Democrats to join us. I know there are more Democrats, a multitude of Democrats, that support this that want to vote for it. The question mark is whether they’re gonna be able to break away,” Leach told The Mark Davis Show.

Former pro football player launches campaign to challenge Ted Cruz

New polling out Wednesday shows U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s approval rating among Texas voters increased from a net negative to a net positive, as the incumbent senator gets his first major Democratic challenger for his seat in 2024.

Pollsters from the Texas Politics Project asked 1,254 registered voters about the job Cruz is doing. Up from a February poll, 45% said they approve of his job performance and 41% disapprove.

It comes as U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, announced Wednesday that he will challenge the junior senator for reelection.

The third-term congressman and former NFL linebacker made his announcement in a three-minute video posted to his social media accounts. In the launch video, Allred talks about his upbringing of being raised by a single mom and his record in Congress, while accusing Cruz of not working in the best interest of Texans.

“We deserve a senator whose team is Texas and Ted Cruz only cares about himself, you know that,” Allred said in the video. “He wants to divide us to get people to fear their neighbors.”

Nexstar was able to interview Cruz on Wednesday, but were told that the senator could not respond to campaign questions in the U.S. Capitol due to Senate rules. According to the Senate Ethics Committee, “campaign-related interviews may not be scheduled, arranged, or conducted using any official resources, including official staff time.”

Capitol Correspondent Monica Madden did, however, ask Cruz to respond to his poll numbers and general criticism from Democrats like Allred, who accuse the senator of focusing too much on culture war issues.

“You can always expect Democrats to be attacking and to be criticizing, I can tell you what my priorities are. And there are three things — jobs, freedom and security,” Cruz told Nexstar. “The reason those are my priorities is those are the top priorities for Texans.”

Cruz joined other Texas Republican leaders in their response to last weekend’s Cleveland shooting that left five dead, saying it would not have happened if the suspect, an immigrant, hadn’t been able to enter the U.S.

Francisco Oropeza is the 38-year-old Mexican national accused of killing five Honduran people inside their home northeast of Houston. On Monday, immigration officials said Oropeza had been previously deported four times, although his current status is unknown. Critics argued that framing fuels prejudice of immigrants, and the victims’ immigration statuses have not been confirmed.

When asked to respond to that criticism, Cruz doubled down on his previous remarks on his podcast, in which he said this tragedy was a result of the Biden administration’s “open border policies.”

“It’s not surprising that Democrats don’t want to bear responsibility for their disastrous policies,” he said. “I’m also angry that this crime happened in the first place because this individual should never have been in Texas to begin with…when you allow gang members and murderers and rapists to come into this country illegally, the result is tragic. And Cleveland, Texas saw that.”

State Democrats like Sen. Roland Gutierrez — who is also seen as a likely challenger to Cruz — denounced the rhetoric, saying it is a distraction from conversations about gun violence.

Cruz said the Cleveland gunman still should have never been able to legally obtain the rifle he used anyway.

“It’s illegal for illegal immigrants to possess any firearm and that’s one of the real problems with the Democrat approach to crime is, inevitably when there is a crime, their solution is not to focus on the criminals…it’s to try to disarm law-abiding citizens to try to take away the ability for you to keep your children safe in your home,” Cruz said.

In April, a source who works with Gutierrez told Nexstar that the Democrat is considering challenging Cruz, but will not make a formal announcement about his decision until the end of the Texas Legislative session this month.

While Democratic strategists had also floated Julián Castro — former U.S. housing secretary and San Antonio mayor — as a possible contender. Castro’s spokesperson Sawyer Hackett confirmed that he does not plan to run for U.S. Senate in Texas, leaving Gutierrez as the only other likely candidate so far.

Senator: Texas Medical Board not doing ‘vital job’ protecting patients from harm

On the floor of the Texas Senate, KXAN took patient concerns directly to lawmakers, testifying about what our year-long investigation found: Patients don’t have full transparency necessary to make informed healthcare decisions when choosing a doctor.

“The Texas Medical Board’s goal is to ‘protect and enhance the public’s health, safety and welfare,’” KXAN investigative reporter Matt Grant told members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on April 19. “But, we’ve discovered, in case after case, the board has instead prioritized protecting physicians over patients.”

For more than a year, KXAN reported on doctors with hidden problems in their pasts coming to Texas to practice. Our investigations revealed nearly 50 doctors practicing, or able to, in Texas despite their medical licenses suspended or revoked in other states. In some cases, patients died.

At the time, we found no record of any out-of-state discipline listed on those doctors’ public Texas Medical Board, or TMB, profiles even though it’s required by law.

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