This Issue: Despite some DEM pushback, Pres. Biden commits to ending Title 42 border policy next month

Fri, Apr. 22^th

Nearly a dozen Senate Democrats, and a handful of Democratic Congressional candidates, have spoken out against Pres. Biden's decision to end the Trump-era Title 42 border policy. Still, that doesn't appear to be enough to convince the president to reverse course.

During her press conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the administration is moving forward with its plan to end the policy despite recent reports that it was reconsidering.

"So right now, we are planning and preparing for the end of Title 42 enforcement on May 23."

Title 42 allows Border Patrol agents to expel illegal border crossers even if they make a claim for asylum. The policy was implemented by the Trump Administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to discourage illegal border crossings and to prevent further spread of the virus.

Open-border groups have urged the administration to end the policy, and while Pres. Biden has carved out a significant number of exceptions, it does still apply to some single adults who cross the border illegally. But most illegal border crossers who are denied entry under the policy continue to retry until they are successful.

Even Pres. Biden's own Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has expressed concern over ending Title 42. Axios reported yesterday that he's privately expressed his concerns to Members of Congress. According to Axios, Mayorkas has "indicated a level of frustration and unease with the repeal rollout, the sources said."

In addition to the pushback from within his own Party, Pres. Biden is facing a backlash from Republicans, Border Patrol agents, and most importantly, voters.

21 states are part of a legal challenge started by Arizona, Louisiana, and Missouri to prevent the Biden Administration from ending Title 42. While most states are controlled by Republican governors, one state (Kentucky) has a Democratic governor.

And prior to the spring recess, GOP Senators blocked passage of $10+ billion COVID relief bill because of their demands to include an amendment that would delay the lifting of Title 42.

Border Patrol agents, who are already concerned and exhausted over the yearlong border crisis, are even more concerned about the expected surge of illegal migrants that will come once Title 42 is lifted. Currently, Border Patrol agents are making a record-high 6,000 apprehensions per day, but they believe that number will triple to 18,000 once Title 42 is lifted.

"The agents are upset. I've never seen agents so upset as I have under what is currently going on," National Border Patrol Union President Brandon Judd told Fox News.

Border agent morale is extremely low. Said one agent:

"We are being mandated to work six days a week every other week and have been for the past few months. It is causing a strain physically as well as emotionally. Personally I am exhausted. I can deal with the work as it is but a 60-hour work week every other week is taking a toll."

However, what should be most concerning for Pres. Biden and Democrats is what the voters think. A recent Politico poll found that 56% of voters oppose the Biden administration's decision to end the Title 42 border policy, ranking as one of the least popular moves by the administration to date.

Again, while the ongoing border surge is expected to worsen, it's important to note that the Biden Administration's continued use of Title 42 has done little to reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the country over the last 15 months. Even with Title 42 in place, 209,906 illegal aliens were apprehended in March, alone. That's the most apprehensions by the Border Patrol in a single month of this entire Administration.

While Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle speak out against ending Title 42, the best thing they can do is to close the loopholes that allow so many illegal border crossers to fraudulently claim asylum. They can do so by cosponsoring and pushing for passage of legislation introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona (H.R. 1901) and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah (S. 884). This legislation would close the asylum loopholes and strengthen border security, which would ultimately discourage border surges. Please visit your Action Board for actions you can send to your Members of Congress urging them to support this legislation.

Chris Chmielenski
NumbersUSA Deputy Director

Washington Examiner: Immigration restrictionist group NumbersUSA Vice President Chris Chmielenski views Title 42 as an immigration policy because it "dictates who can come to the U.S., who can't come, and who can stay."

"The intent of Congress in passing Title 42 was to give clear authority to the Surgeon General to decide who can come and who can't come during a global health crisis to best serve the interests of the citizens," Chmielenski wrote in an email. "Immigration policy, first and foremost, should serve the interests of U.S. citizens."

Missouri Times: NumbersUSA Immigration Reduction Grade Cards were cited in a story on Missouri Rep. Vicky Hartzler.

NumbersUSA, an advocacy group that seeks to limit certain immigration, has given Hartzler a career score of 91 percent, an A. She received perfect marks for her votes on reducing "illegal immigration rewards" and reducing chain migration.

Click to watch the video.

150 years after the end of slavery and nearly 60 years after passage of the 1960s civil rights laws, average Black household wealth in 2022 remains a fraction of the median assets of other racial, ethnic, and immigrant populations.

There are many reasons, but Roy Beck's "Back of the Hiring Line" is about one: two centuries of governmental encouragement of periodic sustained surges in immigration.

Governmental policies and actions have enabled employers to depress Black wages and to avoid hiring African Americans altogether.

Here is a grand sweep of the little-told stories of the struggles of freed slaves and their descendants to climb job ladders in the eras of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, A. Philip Randolph, Barbara Jordan, and other African American leaders who advocated tight-labor migration policies. It is a history of bitter disappointments and, occasionally, of great hope.

You can order the audiobook at https://backofthehiringline.com/

Biden Admin. Releases 756K Aliens into U.S. Communities since Inauguration

Thu, Apr. 21^st

According to a court brief dated April 14 and filed in the Supreme Court, Biden's administration has released more than 750,000 illegal aliens into the United States since he assumed office; larger than the population of Boston, Mass.

U.S. Border Patrol Caught 23 Suspected Terrorists at Border in 2021

Tue, Apr. 19^th

Between Jan. 20 and Dec. 27, 2021, Bidens first full year in office, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended at least 23 foreign nationals whose names are on terror watch lists like the Terrorist Screening Database.

Immigration is a "cheat code" to grow the economy, but it isn't cheap

jeremy beck

Tue, Apr. 19^th

Adding more consumers to a high-consumption nation is an easy way to make the economy bigger, but the costs to wage earners and innovation is significant, and - at a point in which there is growing recognition and concern about imperiled biodiversity - irresponsible.

Illegal Alien Apprehensions at Border Skyrocket in March, Ports of Entry See Surge

Tue, Apr. 19^th

The number of illegal alien encounters increased sharply in March 2022 compared to February. Experts fear that the monthly encounter totals are about to soar even higher with the removal of Title42.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Designates Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status

Tue, Apr. 19^th

The Dept. of Homeland Security announced that it had designated Cameroon for 18 months of Temporary Protected Status, following extreme violence in the country between the government and separatists.