Title 42, a Trump-era public-health restriction on immigration, is reportedly set to end on May 23. The AP reported that the administration “would halt use of public health powers to absolve the United States of obligations under American law and international treaty to provide haven to people fleeing persecution.”
Title 42 was enacted by the CDC in March 2020 under the Trump administration, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, over 1.7 million migrants have either been turned away or released into the interior without asylum proceedings. Though then-candidate Biden characterized Trump’s approach to immigration as inhumane and advocated a more open border, he has continued to use Title 42 as a crutch in the absence of actual border policy and even defended the policy in court.
Now, as pressure from the courts and immigration advocacy groups mounts, the largely indefensible public-health cap on asylum-seekers will come to an end. DHS is bracing for an influx of 170,000 migrants at the southern border, with up to 25,000 migrants waiting for Title 42 repeal in Mexico. The problem is that the White House currently has no comprehensive backup plan for a post–Title 42 border, which is why it’s extending the policy until late May and scrambling in preparation. It recently created the Southwest Border Coordinating Center to help border agencies brace for the impending surge.
While most Democrats have opposed the policy and questioned the validity of its public-health purposes, Arizona’s Democratic senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly wrote a letter to President Biden asking for Title 42 to continue until “you are completely ready to implement and coordinate a comprehensive plan that ensures a secure, orderly, and humane process at the border.”
“Comprehensive” currently seems like a long shot. The southern border is being inundated by migrants, with about 7,100 encounters on a daily basis and over 160,000 encounters in February alone. (In February 2021 there were 101,099 encounters and in February 2020 there were 36,687.) The situation is so dire that DHS deputy secretary John Tien asked employees to consider joining the DHS Volunteer Force. Despite turning over a million migrants away under Title 42, the Biden administration has been releasing thousands of families into the interior, further encouraging the current surge on the southern border.
Biden was able to talk the talk on an open border because he could hide behind Title 42. Now that he’s being forced to walk the walk without proper preparation, we’ll likely witness an even deeper border crisis.