The Administration Is Nowhere Near Ready for the Surge at the Border Next Week

On May 11, the Trump-era policy known as Title 42 will end. It’s expected that up to 18,000 illegal immigrants a day will try to rush the border seeking entry.

Title 42 allows the government to immediately deport most single men and many families that show up at the border. But it’s been challenged in court for years by activists, and when Biden tries to end it, Republican states sue to keep the rule intact.

Now, some members of Congress are becoming increasingly alarmed at the seeming lack of preparation for this wave of humanity and have begun speaking out.

Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema and North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis are proposing a legislative “patch” that would extend Title 42 for two years.

“Despite our repeated calls, the Biden administration failed to plan ahead and implement a realistic, workable plan; our legislation gives them more time to put a plan in place that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the frontlines of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely,” Sinema said in a statement.

Title 42 is an administrative rule, while the Sinema-Tillis “patch” would be a legislative fix. It’s far harder to undo the will of Congress than it is an executive branch action. That’s not going to make it any easier to pass.

Politico:

The legislation would need at least 60 votes to pass the Senate, making it all but guaranteed that it won’t pass before Title 42’s expiration, and it faces an uphill climb more broadly in a chamber that has struggled in recent years to find consensus on border and immigration issues.

And it comes as the House is set to vote on its own sweeping border and immigration proposal next week. But it’s not meant to be a response to that bill — with aides and senators involved noting that Sinema, Tillis and others are holding broader talks on a separate track — but instead is in response to the looming May 11 date for the expiration of the Trump-era authority.

Title 42 was initially supposed to be a public health measure taken to protect the nation during the pandemic. Since the end of 2021, it’s been mainly about holding back the tide of illegals trying to enter the U.S.

But Congress can’t decide how best to prevent a humanitarian disaster at the border.

The administration had initially planned to end the Trump-era program on May 23, 2022. But the policy got tied up in a lengthy court battle as Republicans made an effort to keep the authority in place. The Biden administration then announced in February that the end of the Covid-19 pandemic public health emergency would also terminate Title 42.

But the issue is rife with potential political trip wires for the Biden administration, who faced public urging from Democrats over the past year to keep the program in place. Tillis and Sinema offered an amendment late last year that, among other provisions, would have extended Title 42 and boosted border funding. The proposal failed but got support from several senators up for reelection in 2024 in red and purple states: Sens. Sinema, Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Manchin.

It goes without saying that the administration doesn’t know how it’s going to stem the tide. They sent 1,500 additional troops to guard the 2,000-mile southern border, but that’s just a PR move. No one expects the troops to make much of a difference.

There will be additional border patrol agents to process the illegals and asylum-seekers crossing the border. But that means fewer agents to guard the border from fentanyl and human traffickers. And don’t think the cartels and human smuggling gangs don’t know that.

Biden began his presidency by eliminating many of the border policies imposed by Donald Trump. He did so not because they weren’t working but because he hated Trump and wanted to “prove” how different he was — how much more “humane” and “just” he was compared to “cruel” Trump.

Two years later, Biden has reinstated most of Trump’s border policies. And all those promises he made about opening the border are about to be given the supreme test.