(Originally appeared in The American Thinker.)
Migrants have been waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border for the Title 42 health program to expire. Why? Once it does, it will create an opportunity for the migrants to cross the border and get a toehold in the United States.
Forget about a COVID surge. Governments in the border states are worried about an illegal immigrant surge. More than a dozen states filed an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the order in place. For a Christmas present, the court ordered the policy to remain in place while they prepare to hear the legal challenge to the policy.
Title 42 was established during the Trump administration at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Border officials can automatically refuse entry to migrants who may have been infected by the deadly virus. According to government statistics, 2.5 million potential illegal immigrants have been turned away at the border.
The states’ filing came after a three-judge federal appeals court rejected the states’ request to block a November ruling by a U.S. District Court judge that allowed the Biden administration to end Title 42.
The administration will need to respond to the states’ Supreme Court filing. Once it does, Chief Justice Roberts can either deny the states’ application or allow it to go before the full Supreme Court. The latter is considered the most likely. This isn’t expected to happen until February at the earliest, and the policy will remain in place until a decision is reached.
While the program can’t and shouldn’t remain in place indefinitely, right now it is protecting our southern border. Even the Biden administration has admitted that once it expires, there will be a surge of illegals. The administration asked for a five-week extension to the program to prepare for the surge.
Both parties know that Customs and Border Patrol and border communities can’t handle the expected wave of people crossing illegally. Even the cold winter weather hasn’t deterred them as they wait in lines at the border to enter the U.S. El Paso, which has a Democrat mayor, has already declared a state of emergency because of the overwhelming demand for services that the growing illegal immigrant population requires, and the city can’t provide.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, one of the state officials filing the emergency application, said in a statement, “Getting rid of Title 42 will recklessly and needlessly endanger more Americans and migrants by exacerbating the catastrophe that is occurring at our southern border. Unlawful crossings are estimated to surge from 7,000 per day to as many as 18,000.”
Meanwhile, the White House appears to be doing nothing to strengthen our border. When press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked what Vice President Kamala Harris is doing to address the “root cause” of mass migration to the southern border, which is something she has been put in charge of, Jean-Pierre said, “I don’t have anything to lay out specifically on what that work looks like.”
Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
