Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who heads the Senate Republican Conference, is urging President Joe Biden to continue using an anti-COVID-19 rule to limit immigration.
He noted that the State Department is urging people to stay away from Mexico due to the exploding virus there but is good with letting thousands of migrants cross into the United States from Mexico.
“It is contradictory,” he said in a letter to Biden provided to Secrets and signed by 26 senators.
In it, he and others wrote that Title 42 explusions should remain:
“Your administration continues warning the American public about the dangers posed by the variants of COVID-19. Recently, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, made clear, ‘This rapid rise is troubling.’ She went on to state that, ‘The delta variant is surging in pockets of the country.’”
“The Department of State also recently issued an advisory regarding travel to Mexico — the country through which the vast majority of migrants affected by the CDC Order pass — stating, ‘Do not travel to Mexico due to COVID-19.’ If the CDC and the State Department believe that the threat of COVID-19 is actually increasing (and specifically in Mexico), it is contradictory for the Biden administration to simultaneously revoke the public health authority used by immigration officials to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
“The administration’s first priority must be to protect the American homeland. Allowing political considerations to overrule the clear public health threat created by the spread of COVID-19 at the border is reckless and irresponsible.”
- A group formed by IRS managers this week cheered on the added funding Biden wants for his tax man, explaining the agency returns a good bang on a buck. Chad Hooper, the executive director of the Professional Managers Association, told his members that the IRS is the “only federal agency where the funding turns a profit.” He said that for $40 billion in new spending by Biden to add many more agents, the agency will return $103 billion to the Treasury Department.
- As he steps back into the spotlight and possibly to a 2024 presidential bid, former Vice President Mike Pence has begun laying down policy “markers.” It started this week with a forceful speech on China policy and will include others over the next year, said aides of Pence and his group, Advancing American Freedom. The initial goal, one said, “is to really merge the traditional conservative principles that Pence came up through … with the ‘Make America Great’ Trump-Pence agenda.”
- Indiana Sen. Todd Young, one of 20 Republicans up for reelection next year, said he raised a record $2 million for his campaign and has $4.5 million on hand. His bankroll has so far kept serious challengers out of the race.
