For more than a year, the condition of President Joe Biden’s self-made crisis at the southern border has continued to deteriorate. With every passing day, it becomes clearer that it is far past time to rein in the chaos of this ever-worsening crisis. However, the president has decided to ignore the issue once again in his budget proposal for fiscal year 2023 as well as end critical Title 42 coronavirus restrictions on May 23, that will only open the flood gates and encourage millions more to try and illegally enter our country.
Title 42 allows the government to deport immigrants from countries with communicable diseases and block immigrants from entering the country to prevent the spread of such diseases. This decision by President Biden will further jeopardize our recovery from the coronavirus pandemic by eliminating the ability of U.S. border officials to quickly turn back migrants due to hazard posed by transmissible diseases. With extremely low vaccination rates in these countries, Title 42 is vital to keeping Americans healthy and ensuring we preserve the U.S.’s pandemic recovery.
Since Title 42 was invoked by the Trump Administration, border officials have used it more than one million times to stop migrants from crossing the southern border illegally. Because of President Biden’s decision to end this authority to keep Americans healthy during a public health emergency, even his own administration estimates border crossings could will increase to nearly 18,000 per day – totaling nearly 6.5 million in one year. Additionally, Department of Homeland Security officials estimate that possibly 25,000 migrants currently sheltered in Mexico just right outside of the border, are waiting to enter our country after Title 42 has expired.
With no plan in place to deal with this likely outcome, I was disappointed that last week Democrats refused to allow a vote on H.R. 471, the Protecting Americans from Unnecessary Spread upon Entry from COVID-19 (PAUSE) Act. If enacted, the PAUSE Act would immediately and rightly prohibit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from lessening the stringency of Title 42. It would also prohibit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from ceasing or lessening the implementation of COVID-19 border health provisions through the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, in his budget proposal submitted to Congress earlier this month, President Biden signaled that the border crisis is not a top concern. In fact, he proposed a $600 million cut to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security core funding and a $150 million cut to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At a time when Customs and Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed from the enormous influx of migrants, these cuts are a slap in the face to those who selflessly take care of others at the border and put themselves in harm’s way to defend our country from bad actors.
Even more telling, however, is what the president excludes from his wish list. In fact, nothing in his budget proposal reflects the seriousness of our border crisis or devotes the needed funding increases and focus to border security. There is also no language reinstate policies effective at deterring migrants including the “Catch and Release” and “Remain in Mexico” policies, which President Biden reversed on day one of his presidency. The reversal of these have already resulted in the worse border crisis we have witnessed in more than 20 years. There are also no plans to use the $1.9 billion already appropriated in fiscal year 2022 for border wall construction or to use the $350 million in already-purchased, unused border wall materials paid for by taxpayers.
Since taking office, more than two million illegal immigrants have been stopped at our southern border, and that does not count those who made it through unnoticed. With this has come the flow of criminals, human traffickers and dangerous, deadly drugs including fentanyl. We cannot ignore this humanitarian and security crisis of unprecedented proportions any longer. And instead of restoring order and fairness into our immigration system, the president is continuing to act like the issue does not exist and repealing yet another policy that will undoubtedly exacerbate this disaster.