End of Title 42 May Cost Biden Political Support Across US
© AFP 2023 / STRINGER
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The Biden administration is facing serious challenges with the end of the Title 42 border policy, which had allowed for swiftly expelling illegal migrants entering the country on a massive scale since Joe Biden became the president.
"The end of Title 42 will not allow the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to expel illegal aliens back home or to Mexico," Ron Vitiello, former US Border Patrol chief who served as deputy director and acting director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Agents will now have to process aliens under traditional Title 8 authorities. The time frame for processing goes from minutes to hours. This additional burden will mean longer custody times and short term holding areas will be overcrowded."
The pandemic-era Title 42 at least somewhat helped to stem the tide of illegals under Joe Biden. Still, the flow of migrants has been steadily increasing since the beginning of his presidency. In general, there were over 2.3 million migrant encounters during the 2022 fiscal year, well up from the 1.7 million in 2021. For comparison's sake, under then-President Donald Trump, the number of encounters was 458,088 in 2020 and 977,509 in 2019.
Messy Border Policies
Team Biden's border policies have also led to a recent scandal over the US administration's failure to vet, monitor, and track tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children. A New York Times investigation indicated that Health and Human Services (HHS) couldn’t reach more than 85,000 minors who had entered the US unaccompanied, and lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children over the last two years. According to the newspaper, many migrant children ended up working full-time, while others were trafficked and sexually abused.
Meanwhile, it seems that the Biden administration deliberately did little to prepare for the inevitable migration influx once Title 42 was lifted, according to Vitiello.
"They refuse to put anything in place to solve this problem," he said. "They encourage this chaos and refuse to admit it's out of control."
The US press has reported that the expected surge in migration at the US southern frontier "is setting off alarm bells" in states and cities across the US. For instance, New York City, Chicago, and El Paso recently lamented the already heavy migrant burden on the cities' budgets. El Paso has declared a state of emergency.
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For its part, the Biden administration claims that the new system will make it easier to deport illegals, while providing further opportunities for migrants to enter the US legally if they apply via a special app.
"The Biden administration has announced that it will begin more rigorous use of Title 8, the existing immigration law, to remove illegal border crossers who do not make an appointment to enter at a legal port of entry," Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies based in Washington, DC, told Sputnik. "Officials have stated that they will allow most people to enter with an appointment and provide them with a two-year work permit. If border agents are overwhelmed, they will release most illegal crossers directly into border communities. They will detain a limited number of illegal border crossers who are caught. Reportedly, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun releasing criminal illegal aliens it arrested inside the country in order to make room to detain and remove some of the anticipated illegal border crossers."
Fox News broke on May 9 that top border officials in Washington, DC, had decided to authorize all Border Patrol Sectors to begin the releases if CBP and NGOs do not have enough capacity to hold migrants.
In response, on May 11, a federal judge in Florida temporarily barred the Biden administration from releasing migrants without setting court dates. US District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II, a Donald Trump appointee, wrote in his ruling that the president and Congress had failed to fix the border problem which "had been out of control" for two years. Team Biden warned Wetherell that border facilities could become dangerously overcrowded. But the federal judge did not change his decision and responded that the administration’s "doomsday rhetoric rings hollow."
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"The Biden administration has recklessly pursued an open border policy where most of those who cross illegally and turn themselves in to border agents are allowed to stay and work in the United States," argued Vaughan. "They were warned by career immigration officials that this would set off a mass migration crisis, and they implemented this policy anyway."
"The lifting of Title 42 is somewhat symbolic, because they have not fully used the authority for two years. Now, it is simply an occasion to transition to another policy of what they call 'controlled flow' of illegal migrants. It is a major blunder, because American communities are increasingly dismayed by the consequences of so much illegal immigration, and it has made it impossible to implement constructive reforms to our legal immigration system. These disastrous policies have cost Biden much political support and made it impossible to achieve his objectives for legal immigration reform," the researcher continued.
Walls Work
Sputnik's interlocutors expect that US states will continue their fight against the uncontrolled influx of migrants and the Biden administration's unwillingness to solve the problem. According to Vitiello, "the states will likely do all they can to accommodate the influx, some will sue the Feds, and all will demand resources to alleviate the burden."
"Texas and Florida, which are the states hardest hit by the Biden policies, are becoming increasingly bold in asserting state authorities to prevent illegal migrants from settling in their states," said Vaughan. "Texas has become increasingly bold at trying to block the entry of migrants. Florida just passed a major immigration bill that will cut off access to employment and benefits for most of the migrants and attack the smuggling and identity theft that supports illegal migration. Other states will follow suit."
During his presidency, Trump wanted to build a border wall with Mexico that was expected to cost $8 billion – $12 billion. This initiative was opposed by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress, who argued that the project was too expensive. Ironically, many of these same lawmakers approved $112 billion worth of aid to Ukraine in 2022 alone.
Vaughan is not surprised by the strange twist of fate: she pointed out that there are members of Congress in both parties "who are willing to tolerate illegal immigration because it serves their personal political interests and the interests of some of their financial backers, even though it is harmful to their constituents."
"Walls work," highlighted Vitiello. "The agents know it and the data show it. If done correctly it gives border patrol a mission advantage. Walls provide an anchor for access, technology and increased safety of responding agents. It is expensive when you consider the engineering, land acquisition along with construction. Washington needs to listen to the front line so that appropriate resources and policies are put in place to secure our border and have an immigration system that has integrity."
