GOP senators call on Biden to secure the border ahead of Title 42 ending
Reese Gorman
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Republican senators, led by Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), held a press conference calling on President Joe Biden to do something about the border ahead of Title 42 ending Thursday night.
The senators expressed that the border is already in “chaos,” and with Title 42 ending, it will only worsen the situation.
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Title 42 is a pandemic-era policy that allowed the U.S. to expel migrants who came over illegally without an asylum hearing. Now with it ending, migrants will be allowed to stay in the country while they await their hearing.
“The chaos on our southern border continues to accelerate,” Lankford said. “This administration has not done what it needed to do. This was a very predictable crisis.”
The senators called on Biden to complete construction on the border wall that started under former President Donald Trump but remains incomplete today. Biden halted construction on the wall when he first took office.
There were also calls on the Biden administration to declare a health emergency over the number of fentanyl deaths that have occurred due to drug smuggling across the southern border. Declaring a health emergency would allow the administration to re-implement Title 42, which can only be active during a declared health emergency.
“Joe Biden doesn’t give a damn about Americans,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said. “Why would I say that? 70,000 Americans died of fentanyl overdose. Why? Joe Biden doesn’t care. He has a completely open border. … This is despicable what he’s doing to American citizens. We are losing people daily to fentanyl, to crime. This is wrong.”
The House is set to vote on a border bill Thursday afternoon that would reimplement Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, end catch-and-release policies at the border, and restart construction of the border wall.
The bill, if it passes, likely has no future in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Biden has already vowed to veto the measure if it comes to his desk.
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Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KA) said that he would be traveling to the border on Thursday along with Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ted Budd (R-NC), and John Hoeven (R-ND).
“I’m proud to have Senator Hoeven, Senator Budd, and Senator Cruz joining me as we go see firsthand what’s going to happen as Title 42 ends,” Marshall said. “Certainly, Joe Biden owns this problem, but as a senator, I feel it’s my obligation to go down there and give our border patrol officers a word of encouragement.”