The immigration law now being used on illegal border-crossers could lead to overcrowding at jails, which would trigger authorities to release them onto US streets instead of deporting them, sources tell The Post.

While the law, Title 8, does carry legal consequences for migrants who illegally jump over the border, it also creates a headache for Border Patrol and other law-enforcement responsible for incarcerating them. 

“The more we prosecute, the more that they’re going to go to jail, and we’ll get to a point where there is no more jail space,” former Border Patrol agent Thaddeus Cleveland, who is now the sheriff in Sanderson, Texas, told The Post.

Under Title 8 — which became the law applied to all illegal immigrants after the pandemic-era Title 42 ended May 11 — a migrant who illegally crosses the southern border is deported to their home country or returned to Mexico on their first attempt, according to the feds.

That person is also barred from entry to the States under any circumstances for five years.

If they try to get back in a second time, they can be held and criminally prosecuted.

GOP Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales said the law is a disaster waiting to happen. 

“Bottom line is these jails are already over capacity,” he said of some Texas lock-ups. “You go to Hudspeth [County] Jail — it’s over capacity, you go to Val Verde County Jail, it’s over capacity. You go to Medina County — these are not even counties that are on the border…they’re 100-plus miles north.”

US immigration officials have not had to deal with the reality of jailing all repeat illegal migrants since 2020.

That’s when then-President Trump had started using Title 42, a then-little known health measure within immigration law which allowed the Border Patrol to kick out migrants and immediately return them to Mexico on grounds of protecting US civilians’ health.

It carried no legal consequences, which led to migrants sneaking into the country numerous times.

In the past three years, the Border Patrol used Title 42 to expel about 40% of all migrants who crossed the border illegally, according to US government statistics.

Since Title 42 expired earlier this month, every migrant who crosses into the US illegally has been subject to Title 8, which takes a longer time to process migrants and could quickly trigger a “catch and release” scenario.

After its expiration, Border Patrol has reported a decrease in the number of people trying to enter the US.

But border sources have said that is partly because migrants are being cautious and waiting to see what happens, and not because they have given up on entering the US.

After Title 42’s end, Mexico’s immigration agency said an estimated 26,000 migrants are still waiting in communities around the border with the intention of crossing.

Migrants charged with illegal entry would most likely end up in federal holding cells to await a court date with a US judge, the sheriff stated.

But with federal courts backed up months, sometimes years, if there’s a surge of migrants at the border, federal officials would have to make tough calls.

“That’s when [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] starts running out of bed space,” Cleveland explained.

“Let’s say I [apprehend] six Honduran migrants, and I call over to ICE, and they say, ‘No, I have no jail space.’ At that point, [some migrants] would be given an NTA– notice to appear in court — and let out. That’s when you start hearing the words ‘catch and release.’ “

The notice to appear would grant the release of the illegal immigrant they didn’t have space for onto the streets, so long as the migrant did not have a criminal record. The migrant would be allowed in the US until his or her immigration court date.

“There is no space,” Gonzales said of the current situation in Texas jails.

In the first week since Title 42 expired, about 21,000 migrants were released by Border Patrol with NTAs for a future immigration-court appearance, the Washington Post reported Friday. It wasn’t clear when everyone released had entered the country, but at least some crossed the border before Title 42’s end, the outlet said.

Gov. Greg Abbott has been prosecuting illegal immigrants under a state trespassing law in what the Republican calls “catch and jail.”

“That was part of the issue with the [Texas] governor issuing trespassing charges — all sounds great, but when you apprehend somebody, where do they go? How do they get magistrated? These are all things that are backlogged,” the congressman added.

Under Abbott, Texas has slapped more than 25,000 border-related charges on migrants, according to the governor’s office.