With Title 42 expected to end Monday - unless the courts intervene – an increase in migrants crossing the border is expected.

During a Tuesday visit to the Rio Grande Valley, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said officers with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will process asylum claims.

RELATED: DHS Secretary Mayorkas addresses end of Title 42 in Valley visit  

According to Mayorkas, there is currently a backlog of 1.7 million cases. By expanding the people who can hear asylum claims, Mayorkas said they’ll be processed faster.

"That is going to take what is now on average of a six to eight year plus process from the time of encounter, to the time of ultimate asylum adjudication, to under a year,” Mayorkas said.

Local immigration attorney Carlos Garcia said this change may speed things up, but cautions about large dockets reassigned to USCIS officers.

“A lot of the asylum officers are not attorneys,” Garcia said. “If there is an error in the application of the law, we need to still make sure there's due process."

Watch the video above for the full story.