A new record for border encounters was set last month, new data shows, as the Biden administration readies to end the Trump-era pandemic r...
A new record for border encounters was set last month, new data shows, as the Biden administration readies to end the Trump-era pandemic restrictions in a move critics say will result in a surge in illegal crossings from Mexico.
Former acting ICE director Tom Homan on Friday night accused Joe Biden of doing 'nothing' to deal with the issue, and pointed out that more people had died making the journey under Biden than any president he could recall.
'The Biden administration keeps saying the Trump policies are inhumane,' he told Fox News's Sean Hannity.
'Let me be clear on this. More migrants have died under the first year of Joe Biden on U.S. soil than any year I can remember.
'A record number - more migrants are dying under Joe Biden, and over 100,000 Americans have died over overdose deaths of fentanyl comes across that southwest border.
'His policies are inhumane and they're killing people.'
Former acting ICE director Tom Homan on Friday night said that Biden's immigration policies were 'killing people' because more were encouraged to make the dangerous crossing
Earlier on Friday, Customs and Border Protection said in a court filing that 221,303 migrants were encountered at the southern border in March - a figure 28 percent higher than March 2021 when 173,277 migrants were encountered.
In March 2020, just 34,460 migrants were encountered at the border.
The previous high was set in July last year, when 213,953 people were detained by CBP.
The filing was submitted with more than five weeks still to go before the Biden administration removes the Title 42 health authority over illegal immigrants.
The policy currently allows border authorities to quickly expel migrants, without first hearing their asylum claims, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The order has been in place since March 2020 and has been used to expel more than 1.7 million migrants.
Immigrants arrive to the United States while being smuggled across the Rio Grande from Mexico on Friday
A child is pictured being lifted out of the boat into the arms of a people trafficker on Friday in Roma, Texas
The second bus of migrants from Texas arrived in Washington DC in the early hours of Friday
Critics of the Biden administration are pleading with the government not to lift Title 42, arguing that it will encourage a surge across the border.
Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, has been inviting migrants arriving in his state to go on a one-way journey to Washington DC, organizing buses to transport them to the nation's capital.
The second bus arrived in DC in the early hours of Friday.
Abbott has said he is 'taking the border to Biden' because Biden himself is 'refusing' to come and see the situation for himself.
On Friday, 18 Republican attorneys general have joined a lawsuit seeking to force the White House to keep the order in place.
The suit, first filed by the Republican attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri earlier this month, says that the administration's 'disastrous border policies' would lead to 'unmitigated chaos and catastrophe' if Title 42 is revoked.
John Katko, a Republican congressman representing New York, said that Border Patrol agents were already over stretched.
'They're overwhelmed. They're going to lose complete operational control of the border, if and when that surge happens,' said Katko, who is the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee.
'Everyone, including Homeland Secretary Mayorkas, understands that a surge is coming after Title 42 is gone.'
Even some Democrats have expressed alarm.
'Title 42 was put in place because of a public health emergency,' said Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat representing Arizona.
'It shouldn't be around forever, but right now this administration does not have a plan. I warned them about this months ago.'
Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing West Virginia, called the decision to end the order 'frightening.'
'We are already facing an unprecedented increase in migrants this year, and that will only get worse if the Administration ends the Title 42 policy,' he said.
'We are nowhere near prepared to deal with that influx.'
On Monday, Psaki said Republicans in Congress were attempting to 'politicize' the end of Title 42 and exploit the crisis rather than work to find meaningful solutions.
Various polls have consistently shown Americans are mostly dissatisfied with how Biden handles immigration. It has been a pillar of Republicans' bid to retake the Congressional majority in November's midterm elections.
'It has been a longstanding open invitation - any Republican who wants to work with us on immigration reform, you're invited,' Psaki told Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich on Monday.
'Let's have a conversation. We have not seen an expression of that interest across the board.'
The Biden official didn't answer when asked whether the White House was embracing a strategy of waiting for Republicans to ask for a seat at the table rather than extend and invitation to them.
Within the Biden administration, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, there 'has been a longstanding open invitation -- any Republican who wants to work with us on immigration reform, you're invited'
'We'd have conversations with Democrats and Republicans all the time, Jackie, but I think it's clear what we're seeing from Republicans is an effort to politicize this and not fix what we all recognize is an outdated and broken system,' Psaki said.
Title 42 was enacted under Donald Trump and allows border agents to turn asylum-seekers away regardless of their status in the name of mitigating COVID-19's spread.
Immigrant advocacy groups have said the policy is 'inhumane' and does little to impact the spread of COVID-19. They've been urging Biden to lift it for much of his presidency, reminding him of his campaign promise to roll back Trump's harsh immigration policies.
Meanwhile Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have blasted the White House for its decision to allow Title 42 to expire on May 23
The White House has on multiple occasions tried to deflect that criticism by deferring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and pointing out it was technically a 'public health policy' and not an immigration rule.
But the CDC, responsible for the policy, said that it was 'no longer necessary to protect the public health' in its announcement lifting the order on April 1. Prior to then the Biden administration had fought in court to keep it in place.
Democrats' refusal to consider an amendment keeping Biden from lifting Title 42 sunk an entire $10 billion COVID pandemic aid package after weeks of bipartisan negotiations. Every Republican in the Senate voted to block the legislation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the White House moving to lift the policy as an 'outrageous decision.'
He warned on Fox News Sunday that it 'will produce a gusher far beyond the open border we already have, produce a gusher of additional people coming in.'
'Totally inconsistent, by the way, with them asking us for $10 billion for vaccines and therapeutics,' McConnell added, harkening back to the aid package.
Three GOP-led states -- Arizona, Louisiana and Mississippi -- are suing to block the White House from letting Title 42 expire.
But senators on both sides of the aisle are attempting to cobble out legislation that would pump the breaks on Biden's decision to roll it back next month, before they believe the Department of Homeland Security would be ready to handle an expected surge in migrants at the southern border.
In addition to migrants traveling from Central and South America, Ukrainians fleeing Russia's attack on their homeland have also come to the southwest border hoping to get into the United States (pictured: Refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine await processing of their applications at the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez along the border with the United States in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on on April 9)
The Department of Homeland Security said last month, before the CDC announcement, that it was preparing for an influx of as many as 18,000 migrants per day once the order was lifted (pictured: Vehicles wait to enter the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Ysidro Port of Entry along the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on April 9, 2022)
Democratic Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema warned the federal government was not prepared 'in a way that is both safe for our border communities and respects the humanitarian crisis that is coming,' according to Axios.
Last last month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told reporters it was bracing for a scenario where as many as 18,000 migrants are encountered at the border per day, once Title 42 was lifted.
Psaki was asked about White House's plan if that many people try to cross the border each day by Fox's Peter Doocy at a press briefing late last week.
'I don't know where you're basing your specific numbers on, Peter, but what I would tell you --' she began before Doocy cut her off by reading a report on the DHS statement.
Pointing out the language of the projection, Psaki said, 'Well, 'up to,' and we'll see what happens.'
Trump blasted Biden's decision in a campaign-style Save America rally in Selma, North Carolina last weekend.
'With last week's announcement that the Biden administration will rescind the crucial Title 42 protections I put into place to quickly remove illegal aliens, Biden is willfully opening the floodgates to a tidal wave of illegal immigration the likes of which the world has never seen before,' the former president said.
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