Under intense pressure from vulnerable members of his own party, Joe Biden’s White House staff is seriously considering delaying the end of Title 42 — the pandemic rule that kept 1.7 million illegal aliens from entering the United States.
But Biden is also under enormous pressure from Hispanic Democrats and radicals who are demanding he fling open the borders and allow anyone and everyone entry into the United States.
In the end, Biden is hoping to buy time to get some kind of plan in place that wouldn’t lead to an absolute humanitarian catastrophe at the border. With the Department of Homeland Security estimating that 18,000 illegals a day would need to be processed — up from the current 7,000–8,000 a day — the threat of border resources being overwhelmed is real and growing.
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The administration set the deadline to lift Title 42 requirements as May 23. The pandemic measure was issued by the CDC, and that agency has yet to indicate that the rule should be repealed. This may give Biden some political cover with Hispanics and the radicals, but it’s not likely to last long.
Biden has benefitted from the border restriction but also been reluctant to overrule the CDC throughout the pandemic — and is unlikely to start now.
“Title 42 is a public health authority from the CDC and we continue to defer to the CDC on its use and how long it will be in place,” White House spokesperson Vedant Patel told Axios.
“When it is no longer in place, migrants who attempt to enter the country unlawfully will be placed in immigration proceedings. Asylum and other legal migration pathways should remain available to those seeking protection, but those who don’t qualify will be promptly removed to their countries of origin.”
“The politics are pretty simple,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told Axios. “The Republicans are going to hit Democrats with those videos of people streaming into the United States.”
Delusional radicals and some Hispanic members of Congress believe that ending Title 42 would actually be popular or, at worst, a wash politically. Vulnerable Democrats are under no such illusions.
Nine Senate Democrats, including Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, are urging Biden to reconsider his plan to end Title 42, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday.
Endangered Democrats are bluntly and publicly warning of a political disaster in the midterms. They’re pleading with the White House not to give Republicans an opportunity to paint Democrats as the party of open borders.
Hispanic members of Congress aren’t unanimously in favor of lifting Title 42 restrictions, but the radicals certainly are.
“Asylum is a human right, and ending Title 42 is the right thing to do,” said. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.).
“Now that mask mandates are ending across our country, it is even harder for those who support Title 42 to say this policy is a matter of public health,” Garcia said.
Some members of Congress have signed on to a bill that would require the Biden administration to come up with a detailed plan to deal with the expected crush of humanity at the border. No such plan is possible; any plan set to paper will be strictly for show. The “plan” will be created so that vulnerable Democrats can go to the voters and claim that it’s not their fault that the Biden administration screwed up “the plan.” They are blameless about the mess at the border.
Meanwhile, the actual “plan” will be to process and release the illegal aliens just as fast as the paperwork can be generated. Not much of a plan, but the Biden administration is in damage control mode and more interested in hiding the truth than revealing it.
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