The pandemic-era Title 42 public health order, which allowed for the immediate expulsion of migrants at the border, is set to be lifted at the end of the day on Thursday, and President Joe Biden himself admitted on Tuesday that "It’s going to be chaotic for a while" once that occurs.

Recent drone footage of the border region shows that the situation there is already "chaotic" as thousands of migrants have established makeshift camps, formed lengthy lines, and even attempted illegal entry ahead of Title 42's expiration date, the Daily Mail reported.

Many of those migrants are optimistic that they will be processed by border agents and granted entry into the U.S. instead of being turned away, given the Biden administration's generally lax enforcement of existing border security and immigration laws to this point.

Drone Footage Reveals Massive Migrant Encampment Near Border

The Daily Mail recently obtained exclusive drone camera footage from the border area between Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, that revealed a "sprawling" encampment of tents and makeshift shacks covered in blue tarps where potentially thousands of migrants were waiting for the opportunity to cross the Rio Grande River.

The footage also captured a frightening moment as two adult migrants jumped into the river and swam across as fast as they could to rescue three young migrant children who'd been playing with floatation rings on the Mexican side but had drifted across to the U.S. side and were in danger of drowning after becoming entangled in a bed of weeds.

Similar scenes were found at other major border crossing locations, according to the outlet, including Eagle Pass and El Paso in Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and San Ysidro, California, and it is widely anticipated that more than 10,000 migrants per day will rush the border and seek entry once Title 42 has expired.

Indeed, a local Fox reporter near Yuma posted footage of a long line of migrants that had already formed Thursday morning with the expectation that they would be processed and granted entry by Border Patrol agents

Videos Show Border Surge Has Already Begun

In some locations, such as Brownsville, the rush to cross the border already began ahead of the lifting of Title 42, as evidenced by videos posted by other reporters assigned to that area of the border.

On Tuesday, a former reporter and author who now works with the Center for Immigration Studies, Todd Bensman, posted a video from the Matamoros side of the river that showed dozens, if not hundreds, of migrants who'd made their way across the river and were ascending the bank on the Brownsville side.

Just two days prior to that, a video posted by Fox News reporter Bill Melugin showed hundreds of migrants waiting in a lengthy line to be processed after they had already illegally crossed the border to enter the U.S. near Brownsville.

Brownsville Declared a State of Emergency

The Associated Press reported at the beginning of May that the city government of Brownsville had declared a local state of emergency well ahead of the end of Title 42 due to the fact that it was already overwhelmed with resources stretched thin even though the public health order allowing immediate expulsion was still in place.

It was unclear what had prompted the premature surge of migrants at the border in that area, but it was undeniable that an estimated 15,000 migrants had crossed the border and entered the city that week, which was a substantial increase over the average of 1,700 per week at the beginning of April.

A spokesman for the Brownsville Police Department told the AP, "We’ve never seen these numbers before."

Some of the speculative reasons for the advanced rush on the border were migrant frustration at having to wait, pressure and threats posed by the Mexican drug cartels that operate in that region, and a mysterious fire that burned down part of the massive and growing migrant encampment near Matamoros.

Administration Sending Mixed Signals Ahead of Title 42 End

Politico reported that President Biden authorized the deployment of 1,500 active-duty military troops to the border to bolster the roughly 2,500 National Guard troops already there, though those troops will only serve in administrative and logistical roles in order to free up Border Patrol agents to help catch and process illegal entrants.

The outlet noted that the Biden administration has seemed unprepared for the lifting of Title 42 and is now scrambling to prepare for the anticipated surge of migrants, yet is sending mixed signals by saying that illegal entrants will be expelled or deported while also making efforts to rapidly expand processing centers, at the border and in foreign nations, that will grant entry to newly arrived migrants.

Just how "chaotic" the situation at the border becomes in the coming days and weeks after Title 42 is officially ended is something that remains to be seen, but the drone footage and videos from reporters suggest that the ongoing humanitarian and national security crisis stands to get far worse than it ever has been before.