Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Tuesday of an “utter meltdown” at the southern border if the Biden administration ditches the Trump-era COVID policy allowing illegal immigrants to be expelled back to Mexico.
Under the policy, known as Title 42, about half of those encountered jumping the border are quickly turned back. The policy has been in place since the start of the pandemic, and is one of the few Trump-era get-tough border policies the Biden team has kept in place.
President Biden is now under intense pressure from his political base to end Title 42, but Mr. McConnell said that would be disastrous.
“This move would take our border from its current state of chaos into a whole new level of utter, utter meltdown,” the Kentucky Republican said.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 1.7 million people who were nabbed jumping the border have been expelled under Title 42, with more than 1.2 million of those coming on Mr. Biden’s watch. Another 1.1 million, though, have not been subject to Title 42 — with most of those being caught and released into American communities.
Despite that high level of catch-and-release, immigrant-rights activists say some legitimate asylum-seekers are still being caught up in Title 42.
They say with the pandemic easing, the justification for Title 42 has evaporated.
Mr. McConnell, though, said the Biden administration isn’t prepared for the border surge that will result without Title 42 as a deterrent.
“It would be wildly reckless for Democrats to simply stand down and let the floodgates open,” he said.
Even with Title 42 in place, Mr. Biden has overseen the worst year on record for apprehensions of illegal border crossers.
Mr. McConnell said the administration has had more than a year to put in place a different border security policy, but has “no solutions in sight.”
He also challenged the notion that the pandemic has eased, pointing to Mr. Biden’s request for billions of dollars in new COVID-19 spending.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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