With Title 42 expiring on Thursday, local, state and federal officials are bracing for an influx of illegal immigrants that could potentially stretch resources, causing a humanitarian crisis. Title 42 is a policy implemented during the coronavirus pandemic that allowed authorities to remove migrants from U.S. land borders in order to prevent the spread of Covid.

“The answer is we’re doing all we can, we’ve gotten overwhelming cooperation from Mexico,” said President Joe Biden responding to reporters on Tuesday. “The answer is, it remains to be seen. It’s going to be chaotic for a while.”

Riverside County is the only non-border county accepting migrants seeking asylum and last month, the average number of arrivals was approximately 122 per day. However, those numbers have significantly increased, according to Brooke Federico, Riverside County director of communications. 

“Since we started, that was March 2021, we’ve received around 74,500 individuals,” Federico said. “In the last couple of weeks we’ve seen our daily numbers increase significantly. It’s almost 200 asylum seekers a day.” 

In most cases, Riverside County is usually a temporary stop for migrants who stay for 2-3 days before moving on. There is a certain amount of food, housing, and resources for migrants and officials are doing everything they can to prevent a humanitarian crisis. 

“We don’t yet know what the impact will be to us,” Federico said of Title 42 expiring. “What we anticipate and what we’re already seeing is that our numbers are increasing and what that means is more strain on our system. We only have a finite amount of resources.” 

Federico also said that previously migrants have been turned away at the border. 

A spokesperson told KTLA that the cost to service migrants is just under $10 million for Riverside County, but they are expecting to be reimbursed by the federal and state government. 

Currently, the migrants’ locations are not being disclosed due to safety and privacy concerns.