Joe Biden Unprepared as Title 42 Expires – The Biden administration finds itself without a plan amid the massive influx of 10s of thousands of migrants across the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Title 42 Crisis
Title 42, which expires tonight at midnight, was implemented to control immigration from Latin America and Mexico.
An estimated 150,000 migrants were expected to cross the border. Several border cities were declared emergencies, and Border Patrol officials rushed to process or expel migrants under the expiring policy, Vox reported.
For the past three years, the U.S. government has used the policy to deport migrants to Mexico or their home countries without a chance for asylum.
“We expected to see a large numbers of encounters initially” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a press conference Thursday. “Our borders are not open.”
The administration announced minor penalties for those who cross the border without proper documentation and authorization. These steps included penalties allowed under Title 8 from $50 to $250 in fines and twice the fine for anyone with a criminal record. Toughen asylum rules for those who can show they applied for asylum in third countries and were rejected. Provide exceptions for trafficked unaccompanied children and victims of sex trafficking.
Joe Biden Responds…But There Are Problems
President Joe Biden deployed 1,500 troops to the border.
“As many as 10,000 US-bound immigrants have arrived, swelling the city’s population of 520,000, and more are showing up at the city bus station by the minute,” journalist Todd Bensman reported from the Mexican side of the border in The Daily Mail. “Many migrants walked off the buses with big smiles. They’re so confident in their odds of getting into the U.S. that many of them don’t even bother making camp. They’re heading straight over.
Bensman continued: “One thing is clear – they don’t think the border is ‘closed.’”
The whole area on the Mexican side where Bensman visited was covered with trash and human waste. The Biden administration has implemented a plan called CBO-One that acts as a virtual screening under which the migrants are granted temporary permission to be in the country while their claims are processed.
Fifteen thousand Haitians have congregated in the Mexican town of Reynosa, and many have illegally crossed into the U.S.
Republicans Call on Biden to End Border Chaos
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced the passage of the “Secure the Border Act” and called on the president to sign the legislation to restore order at the border.
The legislation would end the catch-and-release policy that releases detained migrants with a notice to attend a migration hearing, which in many cases they never show up for.
“They are derelict in their duty because they have opened up the border to the tune of over five million people that have come into our country. That’s more than my home state of Louisiana that have come into our country illegally just in the last two years that [President] Biden has been President. We’ve asked, ‘Where are they going? ‘Where are they housing them? Are the kids going to school?’ They don’t know,” Scalise said during the floor debate on the legislation.
“Give our Border Patrol agents the tools they need, so that somebody actually has an asylum claim, [then] they can come and seek asylum and the legal way. You want to come to America? We’re the most generous nation in the world. Legal immigration works. When you open up the border, and bring five million people in two years, it undermines the entire legal system and it breaks down communities – not just at the border, [but] all across America.”
Democrats accused the Republicans of “xenophobia” and accused them of being “anti-Latino” and “anti-immigrant.”
“How do they propose to address our broken, fragile immigration system? Well, they want to waste billions and billions of taxpayer dollars on a medieval border wall, a 14th century solution that will not work to a 21st century challenge,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “They continue to bend the knee to the former twice-impeached president of the United States of America in terms of their policy proposals.
Jeffries continued:“The Republican approach is anchored in xenophobia and fanning the flames of hatred and distrust and of irresponsible policies that will do nothing to solve the problem.”
Biden has threatened to veto the Republican legislation.
