Two gatherings on Monday illustrated the Biden administration’s difficulties in managing immigration at the southern border.
A group of nine House Republicans led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy toured the U.S.-Mexico line to highlight what they call the “Biden border crisis.” Meanwhile, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with President Joe Biden at the White House to express their concerns and urge him to end the pandemic-era policy of turning migrants away.
WHAT IS TITLE 42 AND HOW WILL ITS END AFFECT THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS?
With the midterm elections coming into focus, the border issue may be one of the toughest for the White House to tackle as it seeks to hold the Democratic coalition together and avoid disaster in November.
“The president agrees that immigration in our country is broken. It’s a system that is broken,” administration spokeswoman Jen Psaki said last week. “There are a range of ideas out there in Congress — Democrats, Republicans, others — some who support a delay of Title 42 implementation, some who strongly oppose it. And there are a range of other ideas of reforming our immigration system. This would all require congressional action. We’re happy to have that conversation with them.”
Those conversations run quite differently depending on who is speaking. For Republicans, it’s about safety and security at the border.
“I came down here because I heard of the crisis,” McCarthy says in a video posted to his website. “It’s more than a crisis. This is a human heartbreak. The sad part about all of this is it didn’t have to happen. We are better as a nation than this.”
Liberal Democrats have other concerns.
“Seeking asylum is legal,” Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar Tweeted Friday. “That’s why the failed, Trump-era Title 42 policy must be rescinded. I have and will continue to engage with [Biden] and [Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas] to ensure Title 42 ends on May 23rd as announced.”
Escobar is a member of the Democrats’ Congressional Hispanic Caucus (Republicans have a rival group called the Congressional Hispanic Conference) that met with Biden on Monday afternoon.
Yet even Democrats are far from united on the issue.
Vulnerable Democrats, especially those in border states, are joining Republicans in asking for Title 42 to be extended. A group of Democrats led by Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has introduced legislation that would keep the measure in place until at least 60 days after Biden ends the nation’s COVID-19 public health emergency.
Reports circulated last week that Biden may take the group’s advice and delay the policy’s removal. But Psaki shot those down Monday by saying Congress would need to take action for Title 42 to last beyond late May.
Beyond that date, Republicans are likely to promote the issue during the midterm elections, which could see both chambers of Congress fall into GOP hands. While a recent Gallup poll found that only 5% of respondents listed immigration as the most important problem facing the United States, 60% said they worry about illegal immigration a great deal or a fair amount.
Despite the efforts of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the issue may not be a winning one, even with Hispanics. A Quinnipiac poll found Biden with a 26% approval rating among Hispanics, and Hispanic voters in a Wall Street Journal poll said they would back a Republican congressional candidate over a Democrat by a 9-point margin.
“Panic has set in for Democrats as poll after poll show they are underwater with Hispanic Americans, who are paying the price for Biden’s failed agenda on the economy, border, crime, COVID-19, and more,” said Republican National Committee Communications Director Danielle Alvarez. “Democrats are out of touch and will be out of time to fix their failures come November.”
A federal court barred the Biden administration from lifting Title 42 on Monday evening, but the fate of that ruling is unclear.
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Even with Title 42 in place, some 221,303 immigrants were arrested illegally crossing the border in March, a record for the Biden administration. Of those, 109,549 were expelled under Title 42. If the measure expires, it could unleash chaos not only at the border but in the midterm elections as well.
For now, the Biden administration is reiterating that Title 42 is technically not an immigration policy and promising to prepare for what takes place after it’s gone.
“It’s important to note this is a CDC decision and authority about when we had the health conditions to lift Title 42. It wasn’t an indication of an immigration policy,” Psaki said Monday. “The Department of Homeland Security has projected that there could be an increase in people coming to the border, and that’s why they’ve had a multipart plan and proposal and policy they’ve been implementing for months now to prepare for that.”
