The White House said Republicans in Congress are making an effort to “politicize” the debate over immigration reform but that they have an open door to speak their concerns to the Biden administration.
President Joe Biden has announced plans to end Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that has permitted the deportation of roughly 1.7 million migrants, in May. Republicans and centrist Democrats have voiced concerns about the impact the move could have, with an anticipated worst-case scenario being a surge of up to 18,000 border crossings a day as migrants take advantage of warmer weather before the fall elections.
“On Title 42, you said over the weekend that the administration agrees more needs to be done,” a reporter said to White House press secretary Jen Psaki during Monday’s briefing. “You invited Republicans to work with the White House to get something done on immigration, but has the White House actually reached out to any Republicans to try and move this forward recently?”
Psaki responded that there’s a “long-standing open invitation” to any Republicans who want to work with Biden on immigration reform.
BORDER STATE DEMOCRATS ‘FRIGHTENED’ BY BIDEN’S ELECTION YEAR TITLE 42 CALL
“You’re invited. Let’s have a conversation,” she said. “We’ve not seen an expression of that interest across the board.”
Some border-state Democrats, such as Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, have called the decision to end Title 42 “frightening.”
Kelly, who is fighting a tough first reelection campaign, and Sinema, an unreliable vote for Biden, have been pushing the administration to develop a post-Title 42 strategy and deploy the necessary resources since last summer after border communities, law enforcement, and nonprofit organizations reported being strained.
But the strongest opposition has come from Republicans, who polls show tend to care about the border more than Democrats.
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Psaki was also asked if the White House is actively reaching out to Republicans or waiting for them to start the conversation.
“We have conversations with Democrats and Republicans all the time,” Psaki responded. “I think it’s clear what we’re seeing from Republicans is an effort to politicize and not fix what we all recognize is an outdated and broken system.”
