What Will Biden Do with Title 42?

The Biden administration has stopped nearly all of the Trump administration policies that gave Americans the most secure border in U.S. history. The last policy is about to go the way of the others, but the U.S. Supreme Court gave us a few days of breathing room. On Monday, the Supreme Court halted the expiration of a Trump-era COVID-19 policy that allows Border Patrol to quickly remove illegal immigrants from the United States.

Virginia Allen at The Daily Signal explained that the “policy, known as Title 42, was set to expire Wednesday” due to a U.S. District Court’s order to repeal the policy by December 21. However, the U.S. Supreme Court put a temporary stay on the order. The news broke about 5:00 p.m.  EST yesterday. The stay allows Customs and Border Protection agents to “continue using their authority under Title 42 to turn asylum-seekers away at the border until the court issues a further ruling clarifying the law.” 

Both Republicans and Democrats expressed concerns prior to Monday’s ruling about what will happen if/when Title 42 expires. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas said, “Texas and other states are insisting that the Court leave Title 42 in place. Today’s order is a step in that direction. This helps prevent illegal immigration.”

Democrat Mayor Oscar Leeser of El Paso, Texas, declared a state of emergency for his city over the weekend. While doing so, he explained that the city does not have the resources to handle a surge of illegal aliens crossing the border.

“As we see the increase in asylum-seekers into our community, and we see the temperatures dropping and we know that Title 42 looks like it’s going to be called back on Wednesday, we felt it was the proper time today to call the state of emergency.”

[Leeser added that] he called the state of emergency because “our asylum-seekers are not safe, as we have hundreds and hundreds on the street and that’s not the way we want to treat people.”

Leeser is not the only Democrat to discuss the problems with too many asylum-seekers coming into the United States. New York City Mayor Eric Adams also spoke of the strain that illegal immigrants put on his city.

“Our shelter system is full, and we are nearly out of money, staff, and space,” Adams said.

“Truth be told, if corrective measures are not taken soon, we may very well be forced to cut or curtail programs New Yorkers rely on, and the pathway to house thousands more is uncertain,” the New York City mayor added. “These are not choices we want to make, but they may become necessary, and I refuse to be forced to choose new arrivals over current New Yorkers. I’ll say it again – we need a plan, we need assistance, and we need it now.”

Mayor Adams was supported by New York City Council Member Robert Holden, another Democrat, who told Fox 5 New York yesterday that New York City is out of room. “There’s just no place to put them,” Holden said of the migrants. “And our homeless situation, our shelters are bursting at the seams, like I said, this is a critical situation.” He added that “the president must use his executive powers to extend Title 42. It’s as simple as that.”

The problem is that the situation is not “as simple as that.” The Biden administration wants the illegal immigrants to overrun the United States and overwhelm the systems of the states and nation. While campaigning for the office of President of the United States, he told the world that they should surge our borders if they were seeking asylum, and his administration has not done anything to stop the surge.

The mainstream media has aided the Biden administration in that they have refused to report on the problem. Bill Melugin of Fox News has been the only national reporter reporting on the problem for nearly two years. Two days ago, Melugin shared a post on Twitter showing an overcrowded Border Patrol processing center in El Paso. “The post reads that Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, took the video Friday when “4,600 migrants were in federal custody” in a center with the capacity to hold 1,040.

Mayor Leeser of El Paso is worried that the number of illegal aliens crossing the border will double if/when Title 42 is lifted.

Members of Congress from both parties are also making comments. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The president needs to use every bit of power he has as an executive to find a way or ask for an extension.” He continued, “The president can basically, I think, ask for that extension. I think his administration is doing that or will do that. I sure hope they do. But we need an extension until we can get a viable answer for this.”

Republican governors, senators, and representatives have been calling for the administration to do something for the past two years. Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote on Twitter on Monday that Title 42 is “the last line of defense to combat rampant illegal immigration. And what are Democrats in the House doing today to stop it from ending? Nothing.”

Migrants have been surging the southern border for the past two years even with Title 42 in place. Reports from Customs and Border Protection say that there were “over 2 million encounters with illegal aliens at the border in fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30.” In addition, “Border Patrol encountered 230,678 illegal aliens at the southern border” in October 2022. This is “an increase of more than 65,000 from last October.” The number of encounters for November 2022 are not yet available.