Title 42 Must Be Reinstated

This week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, on behalf of over 50 U.S. Representatives, filed an amicus brief in Louisiana federal court urging it to block the Biden administration from rescinding its Title 42 policies.

The brief, filed in support of Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, and 18 other states focuses on CDC’s Title 42 policies that were first implemented in March 2020 by President Trump. Title 42 allows for the immediate expulsion of illegal aliens, which has proven to be an essential tool for Border Patrol agents in limiting the spread of Covid-19 and overcrowding in Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) detention centers.

“It is beyond dispute that terminating the previous Title 42 policies will cause an overwhelming migrant surge and intensify the border crisis.  Even CDC admits the obvious: the Termination Decision ‘will lead to an increase in the number of noncitizens being processed in DHS facilities,’” the brief reads.

“Moreover, the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis anticipates that one million migrants could cross the southern border within the first six weeks of the Termination Decision’s effective date.  CBP cannot handle the current level of illegal border entries and will certainly be incapable of dealing with a further surge.  A senior Border Patrol official has warned that, within just ‘a few days’ of the termination of Title 42 policies, CBP will reach capacity and ‘will be forced to release subjects on the street,’ which will lead to continued surges of migrants,” the brief continues.

“CDC’s decision is not just a disastrous policy that threatens public safety, but it is also unlawful because CDC failed to offer a reasoned explanation for it,” said Robert Henneke, Executive Director and General Counsel for TPPF. “CDC unlawfully failed to consider the current border crisis, much less explain how a future migrant surge would impact CDC’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies.”

“Biden’s decision to end Title 42—the last effective measure for securing our border—is a complete surrender of the sovereignty of our nation, an abandonment of border states, and a total failure to protect the American people,” said Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington. “I am proud to lead the effort for Members of Congress to join states who rightfully assert, as a matter of policy and law, that mandating COVID restrictions on US citizens while giving illegal immigrants a free pass is unlawful, unconscionable, and outrageous.”

“The Biden Administration will likely try to reverse a federal judge’s decision to end mask mandates on airplanes while simultaneously repealing Title 42 public health restrictions allowing illegal immigrants to flow freely across our southern border,” said Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson. “President Biden’s continued intentional destruction of our country at the expense of our own people must stop. I am proud to lead this effort alongside Representative Arrington and dozens of our colleagues in support of this case to reverse the administration’s purposefully destructive decision.”

“CDC’s decision to terminate its Title 42 policies is inconsistent with its previous findings regarding the need to avoid overcrowding of detention facilities,” said Autumn Hamit Patterson, Senior Attorney for TPPF. “Agencies are not permitted to do this sort of about-face without adequate justification, which CDC wholly failed to provide.”

To read the full brief, please go here.