Title 42, the pandemic-era policy allowing for rapid expulsion of migrants, ends Thursday.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spoke at the White House press briefing laying out the administration’s plans for managing migration, including expedited removal under Title 8, steeper consequences for unlawful entry and additional border patrol, asylum officers and judges.
Mayorkas also reiterated a warning about smugglers spreading misinformation to migrants that the border is “open” with the expiration of Title 42. “Smugglers care only about profits, not people,” he said.
As The Hill’s Al Weaver and Rafael Bernal reported, “there is no certainty on what will happen when Title 42 ends, other than most experts expect a significant — but likely temporary — uptick in border crossings.”
Last week, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) introduced a bill to effectively continue Title 42’s provisions for two more years.
Weaver and Bernal wrote that “immigrant advocates and border experts say there’s little need to replace Title 42, a policy many say was an undue politicization of pandemic fears.” Read more on the Senate proposal here.
Mayorkas said Thursday that Congress has left “a broken, outdated immigration system in place for over two decades.“
He also criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for sending a bus of more than 30 migrants to the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.
Mayorkas said it’s a “sad and tragic day when a government official uses migrants as a pawn for political purposes.”
Republicans in the House passed a border bill Thursday to, among other things, finish the border wall. That bill is unlikely to become law.
The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch wrote, “But its most significant provisions slice away at asylum rights for those fleeing persecution and other pathways to come to the U.S., measures immigration advocates described as among the most extreme provisions to be seriously considered by the House in recent years.”
