That the
Supreme Court
has kept
Title 42
alive for a little longer isn’t bad news, but it’s no victory for effective border control. Title 42, a public health law allowing U.S. border officials to eject foreigners summarily, is a distraction from the real issue: the deliberate choice of a president to open our national borders in reckless disregard for both U.S. law and the national interest.
The
Biden administration
has been trying to get rid of Title 42 since Inauguration Day. Still, Title 42 has been kept in the government toolbox due to lawsuits by Texas, Arizona, and other states that argue that ending it would lead to massive increases in illegal arrivals and thus cost them money. Since March 2020, the law has been used to expel more than 2 million illegal immigrants because of COVID-19 risks. Title 42 is effective because it doesn’t allow immigrants to claim a “credible fear” of persecution, a necessary step in later applying for asylum. This keeps them off U.S. soil and out of the Mayorkas Migration Machine.
Former President
Donald Trump’s
Department of Homeland Security used Title 42 to reduce illegal arrivals sharply, but President
Joe Biden’s
DHS has wielded it reluctantly, with
almost 90%
against single adults from Mexico and Central America. In 2022, family groups were exempted after a class action federal lawsuit, and DHS doesn’t also use it against possible asylum-seekers from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, and other countries from whence enormous numbers are currently attempting entry. Under Biden, fewer than half of those caught trying to enter the border illegally were expelled using Title 42. Last month, it was
only a third
.
‘CLASSIC GORSUCH’: TITLE 42 DISSENT FITS BIDEN’S PUSH FOR ‘IMMIGRATION REFORM’ LEGISLATION
Biden’s leftist base doesn’t want immigration laws enforced and openly calls for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meaning no foreign criminals would be deported no matter how heinous their crimes. Pandering to open-borders activists, Biden has abused the Immigration and Nationality Act’s limited parole power, as former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did before him. But though those presidents let in thousands of illegal immigrants that way, Biden is letting in millions.
Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas say they want a “safe, orderly, and humane” immigration process at the border. What they mean by this is that every person presenting at the U.S. land frontier, from any place in the world, should have the right to enter the U.S. and make a claim to stay, no matter how unfounded. No limits. Under former President George W. Bush, only a few hundred humanitarian parole requests were granted a year, and 75% of applications were denied. Under Biden, parole is given to almost anyone with a pulse.
That DHS has been able to do this a million times since he took office is staggering. The administration knows full well that there are not, and could never be, adequate staff in Citizenship and Immigration Services or the Department of Justice to process so many cases properly in a reasonable time.
Asylum cases pending in immigration courts have risen from 100,000 a decade ago to 750,000, and a million more are pending with Citizenship and Immigration Services. At current rates, each case will take half a decade or more to work through. While these millions of Biden parolees wait, they can apply to work legally, send their children to free schools, and sign up for federal and local benefit programs they never paid into, burdening states across the country. Furthermore, almost none of those denied asylum after due process will be deported, leaving them in perpetual legal limbo.
Congress is allowing this president to get away with arrogating powers that belong to the legislature. It’s time for our elected representatives to take back their authority and hold the administration to account. Mayorkas should be impeached for his deliberate sabotage of effective border control, which has led to drug overdoses, preventable crimes, and billions of dollars in additional costs for U.S. taxpayers in every state. Congress should pass a law mandating that DHS use the Migrant Protection Protocols, significantly raising the bar for asylum claims, and limiting the use of parole power by Biden and his DHS.
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Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center.
