President Joe Biden announced plans to lift the COVID-19 policy known as Title 42 in May. The public health law has limited asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border in the name of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Border Patrol officials said they are planning for as many as 18,000 arrivals daily once the health policy expires. Last week, about 7,100 migrants were coming each day to the southern U.S. border.
The Biden administration has been criticized over border security and ending Title 42. Last week, Arizona, Missouri and Louisiana sued the Biden administration over ending Title 42, claiming it will lead to “unmitigated chaos and catastrophe.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Democrats are “supercharging their border crisis” with the removal of Title 42.
Straight Arrow News asked immigration attorney Andres Mejer and conservative columnist and podcaster Ellie Krasne to weigh in on the debate around ending the policy.
Mejer, who opposes Title 42 said the measure is “being used more as border control than what it was initially meant for, which was to protect the individuals that may have been exposed or who may bring COVID into our borders.”
Krasne accused the Biden administration of hypocrisy.
“We’re still required to wear masks on airplanes so I can’t help but feel this has very little to do with securing our borders or keeping Americans safer or even keeping the migrants safer but is really just politicking from the Biden administration,” she said.