Sen. Mitt Romney predicted Friday that Republicans will win Senate seats from Democrats in Arizona, Nevada and elsewhere when voters punish President Biden for ending a pandemic border emergency and inviting a new surge of illegal immigration.
The Biden administration on Friday said it will end the Title 42 policy on May 23, and Homeland Security is expecting up to 18,000 illegal immigrants a day to start pouring into the U.S. That’s three times current levels and would shatter all previous records.
Mr. Romney, Utah Republican, called the decision the “worst domestic news” but said the politics will blow back on Mr. Biden and his party.
“Arizona, Nevada and more Dem senators will lose their elections,” Mr. Romney said on Twitter.
In Arizona, Sen. Mark Kelly is up for reelection. In Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is seeking reelection. The Senate is divided 50-50 with Democrats controlling the chamber by dint of the vice president’s tiebreaking vote, so any Democratic net losses would cost them the majority.
Mr. Kelly is already on record opposing the Title 42 decision.
In a letter last week with fellow Arizona Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Mr. Kelly said the Biden administration lacked plans to manage the expected surge of people.
Title 42, in place since March 2020, allows the government to immediately expel border jumpers because of the threat they pose of spreading COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which controls Title 42 policy, says it believes the risk from illegal immigrants is now low enough that the policy can be ended next month.
Under Title 42, border authorities have expelled illegal immigrants more than 1.7 million times — though the Biden administration has been using it in only about half of all encounters with border jumpers.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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