Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking President Biden to reverse his administration’s decision to end Title 42, saying it will ‘exacerbate’ the ongoing migrant crisis ‘disaster’ on the southern border.
Title 42, the COVID-19 pandemic-era policy that helped law enforcement quickly remove illegal migrants at the border, is set to expire next Thursday on May 11, which ranking member Lindsey Graham called a ‘nightmare date.’
According to reports, migrants crossing the southern border into the U.S. are expected to spike between 10,000 and 13,000 per day with the end of Title 42 restrictions.
‘So what we hope to do is to beg and plead with this administration — I’ve asked Democrats to join the effort — to not repeal Title 42,’ Graham said in a news conference.
The senators write in a letter to Biden led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Wednesday obtained by DailyMail.com that Title 42 is imperative to keeping order at the border.
But Title 42, a CDC policy, will end with the Covid-19 emergency, and it’s not clear if there is any legal authority to keep the rule in place beyond the emergency.
Graham called on Biden to find an ‘adequate substitute’ for Title 42 if he could not keep in place the current public health rule.
Graham said migrant caravans are camping out along the border because they don’t believe other border policies – namely Title 8 – will provide an ‘adequate substitute’ to Title 42.
‘The reason 10,000 people are in one city waiting for May the 12 is because they don’t see an adequate substitute,’ he said.
‘We write today to implore you to reverse your decision to end the Title 42 public health order, set to expire on May 11. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s own estimates, border surges in response to the termination of the Title 42 order could reach 13,000 encounters with illegal immigrants a day,’ the letter says.
The senators wrote a letter to Biden led by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
‘We write today to implore you to reverse your decision to end the Title 42 public health order, set to expire on May 11,’ the senators say
‘We shudder to think about how much worse the situation at the border would have been over the past three years if it had not been for the deterrent effect of Title 42,’ the letter says.
The senators also say that the administration’s CBP One app to help migrants set up asylum claim appoints is a ‘weak response’ that will not be useful during such a large surge.
‘A rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility is a weak response to the rampant and ongoing abuse of our asylum system. Nothing in this rule prevents aliens from making frivolous asylum claims,’ they write.
‘Instead, under the terms of the rule, aliens are encouraged to schedule a time to present at a port of entry through the CBP One mobile application, after which time many, if not most, will subsequently claim asylum,’ the senators continue in the letter first reported by Fox News.
If border crossings increase to 13,000 every single day, it will ‘be the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already raging fire,’ the senators argue.
The Republicans urge Biden to ‘seize the moment’ and secure the border.
The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will send 1,500 troops to the southern border by May 10, ahead of Title 42’s termination – a move Republicans are branding as ‘ridiculous political theatre.’
At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency will ‘provide a temporary increase of an additional 1,500 military personnel, for 90 days, to supplement CBP efforts at the border.’
The Defense Department will deploy the troops for about three months to help out U.S. Custom and Border Patrol agents, but will not be engaged in active ‘law enforcement’ work.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the troops can do nothing but ‘push paper’ and ‘change diapers.’
‘They’re not doing anything to deter the interest of the country. So it is political theater, it doesn’t change the dynamic,’ added Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Former President Trump sent troops to the border in 2018. Asked by DailyMail.com if he felt it was ‘theater’ then, ‘I feel that Donald Trump did the best job in my political lifetime,’ Graham said. ‘When Donald Trump did something, it worked.’
Chairman Mark Green of the House Homeland Security Committee blasted the Biden administration’s decision to send 1,500 active duty U.S. service members to the southern border, saying it will not stop the influx of illegal migrants.
The Republicans urge Biden to ‘seize the moment’ and secure the border
There is a rapidly forming migrant caravan in Mexico, and some have estimated that there are as many as 35,000 asylum seekers waiting to cross over into the interior of the U.S. after May 11
‘By having our men and women in uniform do administrative work to help move illegal aliens into the interior of the country quicker, President Biden is now using our troops to facilitate the demise of our homeland security, instead of securing our borders,’ Green told DailyMail.com exclusively following the announcement.
‘On January 20, 2021, the number of Border Patrol agents didn’t change and the CBP-enacted budget has remained the same. What changed was the removal of key policies that promoted law and order and ensured the security of the U.S. homeland,’ he continued.
‘Don’t be fooled, Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden deliberately and intentionally created this historic crisis. It is amazing the lengths they will go to avoid implementing the last administration’s successful border security policies.’
There is a rapidly forming migrant caravan in Mexico, and some have estimated that there are as many as 35,000 asylum seekers waiting to cross over into the interior of the U.S. after May 11.
The number of migrants apprehended at the border in March jumped 25 percent over the previous month to 162,000.
New data from April reveals that there were 210,000 illegal migrant encounters. The total over the 2023 fiscal year so far is at 1.4 million.
The administration has said it is preparing to encounter nearly 400,000 migrants each month after Title 42 ends, a huge figure that makes it difficult for border patrol to contain the surge into the interior of the country.
Border agents say they have intercepted over 73,000 illegal immigrants in the past 10 days alone.