Border congressman warns of immigrant ‘hurricane’ if Title 42 is repealed
Brady Knox
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Border Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) warned that allowing Title 42 to expire would result in a “hurricane” of immigrants.
Title 42, in place since March 2020, allowed authorities to expel immigrants quickly due to COVID-19. It has been used in over 1.8 million expulsions since its institution, according to the American Immigration Council. The law has helped to mitigate the effects of the immigrant crisis, but due to a judicial order will expire just days before Christmas. Gonzales is one of many officials sounding the alarm.
“I don’t know what plan in place they are talking about. I represent 42% of the southern border, and everyone in my district is essentially ‘batten down the hatches’ waiting for this hurricane to hit,” Gonzales told Fox News.
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Javier Palomarez, founder and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, spoke with the Washington Examiner, agreeing with Gonzales’s statement.
“If it does, things are going to get a lot worse,” Palomarez said, referring to the expiration of Title 42, which is set to expire in 20 days.
He quoted Richard Cortez, a border Hidalgo County judge, who recently wrote a letter to President Joe Biden warning that to allow Title 42 to expire would “transform a manageable challenge into an Unmanageable crisis.”
At the current rate, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border in the last fiscal year will reach 5 million, equivalent to adding seven new states, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming, to the United States, he said.
However, the crisis is still manageable with appropriate effort, something Palomarez is working toward through his organization.
“What we’re calling for is one: listen to the people on the front line, and two: Let’s reach across the aisle to do what is best for the American people and economy,” he said.
Specifically, he pointed to the proposed Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, which calls for establishing more new regional process centers, hundreds more immigrant processing and removal staff, hundreds more Border Patrol, improvements to process legitimate asylum claims, and increased protections for unaccompanied children at the border
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“It isn’t the final solution … but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Palomarez concluded.