As Title 42 is set to expire on Dec. 21, the Biden administration is getting pressured from both Democrats and Republicans to keep the policy in place and come up with a plan to address the ever-increasing crisis brewing on the southern border.
NTD’s “Capitol Report” spoke with two critics in two separate interviews about the Biden administration’s handling of the border crisis—President and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council Javier Palomarez, a Democrat, and Republican Rep. Brian Babin (Texas). Their remarks articulate a unified perspective on the border crisis and the administration’s lack of a plan to address it.
Both men promoted legislation recently introduced in Congress that they believe will go a long way toward solving the migrant crisis.
Palomarez discussed the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, the first bipartisan and bicameral legislation created to address the southern border migrant problem, led by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in the Senate and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) in the House.
He summarized what the legislation proposes, which includes streamlining the asylum process, hiring agents, increasing the number of processing centers so people can be diverted to different centers when necessary, and better protection for unaccompanied minors.
“These are common sense, workable solutions that deal with the immediacy and help resolve the crisis that exists right now,” Palomarez told NTD.
He particularly praised the bipartisan nature of the bill. “It illustrates that these two men—John Cornyn on the right and Henry Cuellar on the left—are coming together, finding solutions that help not only the people of Texas, but frankly, all Americans,” he said. “It gives me hope that we can get past the partisan politics.”
Meanwhile, Babin promoted a bill that he sponsored in the House, called Securing Our Border States Act.
“It’s a multifacted plan,” Babin told NTD.
The legislation establishes a block grant program allowing border states to continue wall construction on the U.S.-Mexican border. Babin said that the act would in effect “reimplement ‘Remain in Mexico,’ that policy that worked” and stop what he believes are failed ones like “catch and release.”
The aim of his legislation is to stop the “millions and millions of people swarming across this border uncontrolled,” which includes terrorists, criminals, and drug runners for cartels.
“We are seeing dead people, raped, murdered, maimed. We see dope coming across. The drugs. The fentanyl,” he said. “If you add in the cocaine and the other drugs that are coming, it was almost 108,000 people [who] died last year of drug overdoses.”
Both men agreed that Title 42 should remain in place.
“Title 42 is one of those elements that we need to alleviate the crisis that exists on the southern border,” Palomarez told NTD. “It also allows us to sort the good from the bad and help those who want to enter the country, want to contribute to our economy and want to help us move our nation forward.”
He discussed the impact on Americans who live along the southern border and the businesses that are suffering. Between inflation, supply chain issues, and the migrants who “come here and work under the table, not pay taxes,” he said, something must be done to solve the crisis on the southern border.
Palomarez told NTD that the Biden administration should “listen to the American people.” He referred to Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez, a Democrat elected in 2019, who Palomarez said had written to President Joe Biden twice, urging him to keep Title 42 in place “because as he put it, the expiration of Title 42 would transform a manageable crisis into an unimaginable crisis.”
In November, Clinton-appointee U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered an end to the policy’s use on Dec. 21. But the Biden administration is appealing this ruling, arguing that the order should be suspended pending a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on a separate decision in May by a Louisiana federal court judge, who blocked the administration’s attempt to end the policy.
The U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) originally implemented Title 42 in March 2020 under the Trump administration to quickly deport immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. The move, the CDC reasoned, would reduce the virus’ spread and, thus, lessen the health threat to Americans.
The CDC moved to lift this policy earlier this year, only to have this blocked by a Louisiana federal court judge in May after 24 Republican state attorneys general brought a lawsuit arguing that lifting Title 42 would result in a surge of illegal immigration.
In the November ruling (pdf), Sullivan opined that the CDC was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) in its use of Title 42. With a myriad of less drastic measures at its fingertips, such as the increased availability of COVID-19 vaccinations and outdoor processing options, the CDC “failed to articulate a satisfactory explanation” for its “unreasonable” and “extraordinary decision to suspend the codified procedural and substantive rights of noncitizens seeking safe harbor.”
As the situation currently stands, Babin said, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol “in many cases their hands are tied by this administration.” They are not allowed to do their duty, which he said includes stopping people from coming over the border, capturing them, and sending them back.
“Simply for the fiction that they want to be humanitarian,” he said. “There is nothing humane about the border under Joe Biden. It is anything but humane.”
“Border security is national security,” Babin told NTD. “And national security is border security, and for some reason, our President and Secretary of Homeland Security cannot understand that.”
NTD has reached out to the White House for comment.