Despite warnings, including from fellow Democrats, that it will lead to another surge of illegal migrants at the border with Mexico, President Biden will end the Trump-era policy known as Title 42 — which allowed the summary expulsion of nearly 2 million migrants — on May 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.
The move comes as hundreds of migrants have already pushed north through Mexico in caravans, clashing with National Guard officers and immigration agents and stoking concerns of a potential wave of up to 170,000 migrants this spring.
In a statement, the CDC said the order would remain in place for the next seven weeks to “implement appropriate COVID-19 mitigation protocols, such as scaling up a program to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to migrants and prepare for resumption of regular migration”.
“After considering current public health conditions and an increased availability of tools to fight COVID-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the CDC Director has determined that an Order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States is no longer necessary,” the agency said.
Title 42 went into effect under former President Donald Trump in March 2020 and has allowed border officials to immediately expel migrants who attempt to enter the US without allowing them a chance to claim asylum.
The policy has been used to expel migrants more than 1.7 million times, according to official estimates.
Reports in recent weeks that the Biden administration would soon terminate Title 42 has led lawmakers of both parties to warn of a massive surge in migration this spring — typically the peak period for attempted border crossings.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned in a separate statement that “we know that smugglers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants.”
“Let me be clear,” he added. “Those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
“We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests, and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection,” Mayorkas went on. “We will increase personnel and resources as needed and have already redeployed more than 600 law enforcement officers to the border.”
Mayorkas also said that DHS would implement “appropriate COVID-19 protocols” to guard against a potential uptick in cases, “including ramping up our vaccination program.”
Without the order as a deterrent for asylum-seeking migrants, border state lawmakers have also warned that hundreds of thousands of people could swarm the southern border once Title 42 is lifted.
In contrast to the Mayorkas promise of a “comprehensive, whole-of-government” approach, many local elected and border officials are in the dark about what to do, with some accusing the Biden administration of having “no plan.”
“We don’t have enough information on what those plans are … assuming they exist,” Border Patrol agent Jon Anfinsen told The Post this week. “We don’t even know what to tell [agents] what to expect. We’re already in a position where things are as bad as they have ever been. To think they’re going to get worse, it’s hard to quantify that.”
As hundreds of migrants march north through Mexico, many are already camped out at ports of entry along the border.
DHS and State Department officials told reporters that the administration is looking for ways to “streamline” processing at ports of entry and provide migrants with a “more orderly, legal pathway.” They did not detail whether migrants already positioned at the border will receive prioritization for asylum requests.
When pressed about how many migrants are waiting in Mexico for the order to end, the officials did not provide a number but said they are “continually working to identify where migrant populations are.”
The officials noted that they are anticipating “challenges” at remote areas of the border such as Yuma, Arizona and Del, Rio Texas.
Republicans immediately slammed the administration’s move with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel accusing Biden of “actively worsening the crisis he created.”
“At every opportunity, Biden has enacted policies that open our southern border, empower drug smugglers and human traffickers, and make American communities less safe. Joe Biden has overseen the worst border crisis in DHS history,” McDaniel said. “By removing Title 42, Biden’s doubling down on his commitment to actively worsening the crisis he created.”
“Ending Title 42 expulsions will signal to cartels and migrants alike that our southern border is now wide open—inciting even more violence, more trafficking, and more lawlessness,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed. “President Biden clearly has no intention to secure the border by faithfully executing Congress’ command to detain and deport illegal immigrants.”
“Ending Title 42 prematurely will likely lead to a migrant surge that the administration does not appear to be ready for,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) tweeted. “I’ll keep pushing the administration to strengthen border security & look forward to hearing directly from border agents during my upcoming trip to the border.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called it the “worst domestic news” of the day, while Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) called it “frightening.”
“Title 42 has been an essential tool in combating the spread of COVID-19 and controlling the influx of migrants at our southern border. We are already facing an unprecedented increase in migrants this year, and that will only get worse if the Administration ends the Title 42 policy,” Manchin said. “We are nowhere near prepared to deal with that influx.”
Original Article: https://nypost.com/2022/04/01/title-42-to-be-terminated-on-may-23-cdc-says/
America will soon be out of food for all of us so how the hell do the idiot immigrants believe they are coming to a better country? They are coming here to die – of starvation- and not before they commit atrocious crimes on Americans just so THEY can survive. Then, Americans will retaliate and kill them to save their own lives and homes. That is when the real war will begin. Damn Joe Biden and his cronies to hell!
Joe Biden is now a serial terrorist!