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A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to keep Title 42, the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Covid-19 border restriction, in place after a lawsuit from Missouri, Louisiana and Arizona.
‘This is a huge victory for border security, but the fight continues on,’ Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt wrote on Twitter announcing the news.
‘I am so proud of the lawyers from our office who just got a Temporary Restraining Order to keep Title 42 in place. We will continue to fight the Biden administration’s open border policies,’ Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich wrote on Twitter.
Nineteen other states have signed onto the lawsuit since the three states originally filed it.
Migrants of different nationalities walk peacefully through the main avenues, in the city of Tapachula in Chiapas, Mexico, 16 April
Department of Homeland Security officials are expecting up to 18,000 migrants per day once Title 42 is lifted
The Biden administration announced early this month that Title 42, the CDC’s public health order that allows border agents to immediately expel migrants, would expire on May 23. DHS revealed that it was expecting up to 18,000 encounters per day on the southern border once the policy is lifted – more than double the current rate of 7,000 and more than triple the DHS’ operational capacity of 5,000 per day.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said moments before the decision that it was up to Congress to delay the end of the pandemic policy, after an onslaught of Democrats and Republicans sounded the alarm.
‘Congress would need to make any decision about a change to the authority they gave the CDC.’
Border agents rely on the Trump-era policy to turn away a majority of migrants who arrive at the border each month.
Psaki blamed former President Trump for the overwhelming number of border crossings.
‘If we just dial it back a few years to kind of what we inherited here, the former president invested billions of dollars in a border wall that was never going to work,’ she said Monday.
The number of migrant crossings at the Mexican border surged to the highest number in over two decades last month, surpassing 200,000 for the third time of the Biden administration.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) submitted figures to a court revealing that 221,303 migrants attempted to enter the country unlawfully last month, before the expected onslaught triggered by the end of Title 42.
The March figures show the highest number of crossings in a single month since President Biden took office. The last time border agents encountered more migrants was in February and March of 2000. In March 200, 220,063
Asylum-seeking migrants cross the Rio Bravo river to turn themselves into U.S. Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas on Thursday, April 21
People scale a ladder at the southern border fence and lower down with a rope on the U.S. side on April 21, 2022
There were nearly 60,000 more encounters in March than February, when 165,000 tried to cross.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are warning that they could run out of funds as early as early July if migration skyrockets like projections predict once Title 42 is lifted.
Meanwhile on Monday a group of 133 Republicans in Congress are questioning Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ ‘suitability for office’ as they double down on claims that he is ‘dismantling the security’ of the southern border.
‘Your actions have willingly endangered American citizens, undermined the rule of law and our nation’s sovereignty,’ reads the letter, led by Border Security Caucus co-chair Brian Babin of Texas and Republican Study Committee Chair Jim Bank of Indiana.
‘Your failure to secure the border and enforce the laws passed by Congress raise grave questions about your suitability for office,’ the letter to Mayorkas continues.
Axios reported last Tuesday that the White House is indeed mulling a pause on plans to end Title 42 amid blowback, though the White House has promised it is not. Psaki has repeatedly said that the pandemic restriction is not to be used as an immigration authority but a public health one.
Source: Daily Mail
