Arizona Joins with Two Other States to Sue Biden Admin to Block Ending Title 42 Border Restrictions
The attorneys general of Arizona, Louisiana and Missouri announced Monday they are suing the Biden administration over its decision to end the Title 42 public health order relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and migrant entry into the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky stated in a directive issued Friday that the risk of spread from cross-border traffic is now far lower than it had been.
“While the introduction, transmission, and spread of COVID-19 into the United States is likely to continue to some degree, the cross-border spread of COVID-19 due to covered noncitizens does not present the serious danger to public health that it once did, given the range of mitigation measures now available,” she wrote.
Title 42 of U.S. Code 265 is a 1944 public health law that states that, in times where “any communicable disease in a foreign country [where] there is serious danger of the introduction of such disease into the United States,” the surgeon general, through the president, “shall have the power to prohibit, in whole or in part, the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places as he shall designate in order to avert such danger, and for such period of time as he may deem necessary for such purpose.”
In March 2020, the administration of then-President Donald Trump invoked the regulation due to the COVID-19 crisis to expel any illegal immigrant caught trying to cross into the United States.
In their court filing, the attorneys general argued that for the Biden administration to stop invoking Title 42 will eliminate the “only safety valve preventing this Administration’s disastrous border policies from devolving into an unmitigated chaos and catastrophe.”
The lawsuit contends that the White House did not “conduct the statutorily required notice and comment process” and is “arbitrary and capricious” in its implementation in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
CBS News reported since the policy went into effect, it has been invoked more than 1.7 million times to expel illegal immigrants.
“Roughly 70% of those expulsions occurred during the Biden administration, which has faced a record number of migrant arrivals to the southern border in the past year, DHS figures show,” the news outlet added.
In the Yuma sector of the southern border, near the Arizona/California line, border encounters were up 1,121 percent from Oct. 1, the beginning of the 2022 fiscal year, to the end of February, compared to the same time period last year, according to Fox News.
There were 9,732 encounters in FY 2021 and 118,887 this year.
The Department of Homeland Security said last week that the number of migrants crossing the southern border daily is expected to go from 7,100 now to as many as 18,000 once Title 42 is lifted, according to The Washington Times. That translates to over 500,000 per month.
Live in Eagle Pass, TX this morning. One of the epicenters of the current border crisis, which may soon get a whole lot worse.
DHS projects if Title 42 is dropped, there may be upwards of 18,000 illegal crossings *per day*.
That number is roughly 7,000 per day right now. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/EnsOsaHSEv— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 31, 2022
“Their attempt to rescind Title 42 will lead to drastic consequences on our southern border,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
“We have to … ask ourselves, ‘What is the Biden administration doing?’” Brnovich added. “Because they are truly undermining and destroying this country.”
Last month, Brnovich hailed a court win against the administration when a federal judge partially blocked implementation of the administration’s significantly narrowed criteria for those subject to deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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