Southern border state Republicans moved on Monday to force a House vote on a bill that would maintain Trump-era policies allowing for more swift removal of illegal immigrants in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy filed a discharge petition to force a House vote on New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell’s PAUSE Act.
The bill would prohibit Health and Human Service and Homeland Security from ‘from lessening the stringency of… or lessening implementation of the COVID-19 border health provisions through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.’
A ‘discharge petition’ requires signatures from 218 House members to force a vote. There are 212 Republicans in the House, meaning a handful of Democrats would need to break ranks for the measure to pass.
‘The situation on our southern border is bad and getting worse,’ Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lamented.
‘Yet the most resolve, the most strength that this Administration has shown on the border has been their commitment to their talking points. Their refusal to call the crisis a crisis,’ he continued.
Biden, for the first time, acknowledged Saturday that the situation at the border is a crisis.
Border state GOP Reps. Yvette Herrell (left) and Chip Roy (right) are trying to force a vote to keep Trump-era policies in place making it easier to expel migrants during the pandemic
Record numbers of migrants are arriving in the U.S. by way of Mexico since President Joe Biden took office in January
While the administration is using CDC’s Title 42 to more quickly expel migrant families from the U.S. in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic – it has not used the measure against the mass numbers of unaccompanied minors
There are more than 21,000 unaccompanied minor migrants in U.S. custody and in March, officials encountered more than 172,000 migrants at the southern border
Herrell said in a statement of her bill: ‘Title 42 border health protections may be the only thing keeping Biden’s border crisis from becoming a full-blown catastrophe. Congress must act to ensure Border Patrol keeps their authority to quickly expel migrants who have or may have been exposed to COVID-19.’
Roy added in his own statement: ‘When the new administration came in, President Biden ended President Trump’s Title 42 enforcement for thousands of children and families, and he may still decide to end enforcement altogether, all to appease his anti-borders base.’
‘Suspending Title 42 enforcement in part has already signaled to cartels and coyotes that the era of catch and release has returned, and encouraged them to expand their atrocious operations across our border and into our communities,’ he continued.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out an order in March 2020 under Trump, called Title 42, in response to handling illegal immigration during the pandemic.
It allows U.S. border and immigration agencies to more rapidly expel illegal crossers encountered at the southern border – sometimes within hours of arriving in the U.S.
While Title 42 has not been fully repealed under President Joe Biden, the administration is not widely applying it, especially to deal with the massive influx of unaccompanied minor migrants arriving every day.
Here migrant families wait in Roma, Texas to be escorted by a local church group to a place to turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande into the U.S.
Migrant families pray after crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas
They are using it to address migrant families in some cases, however.
Specifically, Title 42 helps immigration policies fall in line with other coronavirus restrictions. It requires expedited removal provisions to be kept in place until the CDC lowers traveler health risks from Canada and Mexico to Level 1.
In May 2020, the number of migrants in federal custody was 117 after a previous record of migrant crossers was reached that March. Now, the number is in the dozens of thousands and the record has been more than doubled.
U.S. agencies have been even more inundated with migrants traveling to the border since Biden took office after he vowed as a candidate that all those seeking asylum would be granted it.
Recent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) numbers show the government has more than 21,000 unaccompanied minor migrants in its custody – a record number.
In March, officials encountered more than 172,000 migrants at the southern border, a number that is expected to rise even further in the coming months.
Although Title 42 was only put in place for public health reasons, it proved one of the most effective ways to expel illegal immigrants.
Republicans feel the measure should be used more aggressively under Biden as the U.S. faces a growing crisis at the southern border, with some holding and processing facilities reaching more than 2,000% capacity.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Democrats for still refusing to call the border situation a ‘crisis’ – a few days after Biden for the first time used the word to describe the ongoing emergency
Critics claim that by using this provision, Biden could significantly decrease the number of unaccompanied children being kept in border facilities.
Also on the immigration front, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are facing backlash for still refusing to visit the southern border.
Biden, for the first time, called the situation a ‘crisis’ on Saturday while coming off the golf course in Wilmington, Delaware.
Last month, Harris was named border ‘czar’ – but recently her responsibilities have been shifted to addressing ‘root causes’ in Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
She will visit Guatemala and Mexico soon, but will not stop at the border.
