Attorneys general from Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri are demanding an order to end Title 42, a policy implemented by the Trump administration in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and which allows the rapid removal of migrants in the border.
“This lawsuit challenges an impending calamity: the abrupt removal of the only safety valve that prevents this administration’s disastrous border policies from becoming an outright catastrophe,” the suit says.
“We want to prevent the Biden administration from rescinding Title 42 because it may be one of the stupidest decisions of this administration, and they’ve done a lot of dumb things,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Monday morning on “FOX & Friends».
The Biden administration announced last Friday that it will cancel the order, despite fears of a massive migration wave in the coming months.
In February, 55% of the more than 164,000 migrants found at the border were expelled under the order.
“After considering current public health conditions and increased availability of tools to combat COVID-19 (such as highly effective vaccines and therapeutics), the Director of the CDC has determined that an order suspending the right to introduce migrants into the United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in a statement.
Left-wing activists and Democrats have been calling on the Biden administration to end the order for months, claiming it is cruel and denies immigrants due process.
But Republicans, along with some Democrats, have warned it will drive even more migrants to the border.
The secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, affirmed on Friday that “he has implemented a comprehensive strategy of the entire government to manage any potential increase in the number of migrants who are at our border.” “We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, assess asylum claims, and rapidly remove those who do not qualify for protection,” he said in a statement.
“We will increase staff and resources as needed. We have already redeployed more than 600 law enforcement officers to the border. We are referring smugglers and certain border transients for criminal prosecution. Over the next two months, we will implement additional measures appropriate to COVID-19, including intensifying our vaccination program.”
The lawsuit from those Republican states argues that the Biden administration’s termination of Title 42 is not only bad policy, but also “arbitrary and capricious.”
The lawsuit, filed in Louisiana District Court, alleges that the administration failed to calculate and account for the costs to the states. They cite “increased health care costs for aliens infected with COVID-19 and the cost of increased illegal immigration caused by the Termination Order, and the presence of a much larger number of aliens on parole with applications asylum seekers who were induced to enter the United States due to the Termination Order.”
“While it’s hard to identify the most irresponsible move by President Biden since he took office, rescinding Title 42 is certainly up there,” Brnovich said in a statement. “This is a ridiculously bad decision with bad intent for border states and American communities across the country. This administration’s reckless complacency with the far left and complete abdication of its responsibility to public safety cannot be allowed to continue.”
