As Title 42 Ends, The Real Migrant Stampede Begins
If we think the southern border incursions by illegal migrants is now out of hand, we haven’t yet seen the worst of it. The end of our only remaining sovereignty-protecting ‘Stop Sign,’ Title 42, happens in just seven days (12-21-22), unless Mr. Biden stops the termination, which he won’t. So, what is this Title 42?
Title 42 is a section within the U.S. Code that traces back to an emergency law, originated back in 1944, permitting federal health personnel to prohibit migrants, legal or illegal, from coming to the United States if suspected of carrying diseases deemed contagious. Back then, we actually checked! More recently, then, the CDC invoked Title 42’s provisions (March 2020) at the start of the COVID pandemic, and it has remained in effect. That provision has allowed Border Patrol agents “to expel 40% of migrants they encountered at the border, reducing the time spent processing them.” But, by court order, on December 21st, Title 42’s “pandemic expulsion authority” will end. No country on earth, besides America, has an open border. None! Our current border policies are, thus, beyond stupid.
UPDATE: As of today, 12/19/22, responding to an appeal to the Court from 19 states to keep Title 42 active and in place, the Supreme Court has issued a temporary “stay” preventing for now the expected termination of Title 42 that had been slated to end on Wednesday (12-21-22). This “stay” is pending a response from the White House which seems to have wanted the Title 42 provision to go ahead and expire, as no prior action had come from the WH to prevent the anticipated termination.
No longer fully active, as well, is the deal negotiated by President Trump, called “Remain in Mexico,” which forced migrants seeking U.S. asylum to stay in Mexico until summoned for an asylum hearing. Right now, due to the daily high numbers wanting entry, asylum seekers are now not only permitted entry, but, as you know, are sent all over America with orders to report back for a hearing (which can reportedly take a very long time). The policy now is “Catch and Release” (into America). And by the way, almost 2/3rds of all those registered and admitted never return for their hearing, illustrating clearly the wisdom of the no-longer active “Remain in Mexico” regulation. Oh, and do remember, also, that the vast percentage of asylum seekers who do report for their hearing, are denied that status, because seeking a better economic life is not an acceptable ground for an asylum grant. Provable fear of death, bodily harm, or imprisonment, if returned to one’s country of origin, is one of the few grounds. So, now you can understand why 2/3rds of entering migrants never come back for that hearing! Let alone the tens of thousands of “Got-Aways” (migrants sneaking in without registration) who are then totally unaccounted for.
Obvious to all, we have a huge migrant problem, past, current, and future, for which this administration could apparently, and shamefully, care less. These migrants represent future Democrat voters which is the core reason why this insanity at the border is allowed to exist, in direct violation of America’s immigration laws (why has there been no meaningful court action?). And, to underscore the fact that both the Biden Team, and the current dominant Congressional Democrats seem to care less about the fact that, for the last two-years, we seem to have no actual southern border!
It was just a week ago, you’ll recall, that Mr. Biden was actually right there in Arizona, yet he refused to visit the Arizona border because, said he: “There are more important things going on.” More important things than getting an on-site feel for the size and scope of the on-going migrant invasion of America. Clearly, he just doesn’t care. It’s what he and his handlers-behind-the-curtain want. Oh, and although he had no time to see the border situation first-hand, you should know that he has had plenty of time for vacations away from D.C. In fact, he is reported to have spent 271 days on vacation, in the last almost two-years, with those trips costing taxpayers an estimated $11-million!
Anticipating the termination of Title 42, our only current means of turning illegal migrants away (sent back to Mexico or country of origin), the migrant tsunami is already gaining daily in entry numbers. Case in point was the El Paso Sector which saw almost 2,500 illegals cross our border there each day last weekend. In just 48-hours, all across what’s left of our southern border, according to Border Patrol records, 16,000 illegals sought entry, were registered (but not vaccinated), and held in totally overcrowded border-area retention facilities, or simply sent into facilities of over-crowded El Paso, or ultimately shipped to other locations in the U.S., whereabouts of many or most likely to become unknown. Hoards of migrants, surging at one time, make it difficult-to-impossible for under-staffed & over-worked U.S. Border Patrol agents to identify criminals, terrorists, smugglers, and other undesirables who should definitely not be admitted on U.S. safety and security grounds. And that’s all been happening with Title 42 still in effect!!
El Paso Sector agents considered that particular 48-hour surge, in their area alone, to have been “the largest migrant caravan in history.” Behind the scenes, Mexican police are said to have escorted 20 busloads of those migrants to a border city, after which they were turned over to NGO’s (non-governmental organizations), and from there “they walked to the river and illegally crossed the border into El Paso.”
Along with our understandable national citizen concern about the coming stampede of illegal migrants seeking U.S. entry, there is deep concern (or should be) about a similar surge in illegal drugs. Worried Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn) has characterized that likely post-Title 42 increase as a “tsunami of fentanyl.” Fentanyl, the drug that can dangerously overcome, or potentially kill a person (absent a rapidly applied antidote) even when just in close proximity, let alone by swallowing a laced pill, the latter a certain death sentence. Last year (2021), “fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico killed roughly 70,000 American residents, and that number will only be higher for 2022.”
Now, with no WH action to renew Title 42, or press for a substitute provision to allow Border Patrol to expel certain illegals rather than have to admit them. And with no real effort to shut down our southern border as the previous administration had pretty much done (Trump’s border wall construction suspended by Mr. Biden, of course), believe his audacity or not, lacking the obvious solution, Mr. Biden now wants $4-billion in more border funding because he fears an immigrant surge. As the old H.S. saying goes: “No s**t, Sherlock.” Not just a surge, a catastrophic continuing stampede. Flow estimates range between 9,000 and 15,000 border entries each day, and that may quickly prove to be low (vs. an average Fiscal Year 2022 figure of 6,500 crossings per day)! Suggestion: Rather than put senseless and repressive (intent?) taxpayer millions into hiring 87,000 more IRS agents, shift those mega-dollars over to hiring a ton more CPB agents and whatever else is needed in law enforcement and border barrier support. This would also allow our Border people to do more preventative patrolling of the border, rather than being tied down registering migrants & dealing with their needs.
And now the WH press secretary, on behalf of the White House, is actually claiming that Republicans are “refusing” to work with the administration “to find solutions to secure the southern border,” even though it’s blatantly obvious that the administration does NOT want to secure the border, due to Progressive-Democrat pressure, from the very beginning. Just another foolish political excuse. Said leading House Republican, Representative Kevin McCarthy, responding in opposition: “They (administration) have destroyed this border. We don’t even have operational control anymore…. 1.5-million fentanyl pills in one week, (along with persons) crossing from 42 different countries. He’s (Biden) been in office for more than 40-years and has never been to it (border). On January 3rd, I will (literally) move hearings to the border…. so the Democrats can no longer avoid the situation.” Said Republican Senator Marco Rubio, in part: “A Republican president would have appealed the (judge’s) decision (to end Title 42), but President Biden doesn’t dare draw fire from fanatical immigration activist groups. As a result, Biden officials are preparing to comply, despite having no plan to manage what will follow.”
In seven days, the only mechanism our Border Patrol agents have to stem the flow of illegal migrants (Title 42) will terminate, as migrants are now massing in higher and higher numbers in anticipation. Our only hope to slow, but not solve, the approaching catastrophe, is for Congress to step in quickly with a legislative solution, or for the White House to somehow get a temporary “stay” of that Judge’s termination order. Continued massive illegal immigration erodes our nation’s safety & security, our collective traditions, character & conscience, our national/local health status (drugs and disease), and our all-important economy, given the taxpayers’ enormous, illegal immigrant-imposed continuing major drain on federal, state, and local expenditures for welfare, housing, medical services, schools, language, job training, additional law enforcement, etc.
Assessing the current situation with our border, and with the candid thoughts of a realist, on-line commentator Scott Johnson has written: “In theory, the president of the United States is legally obligated to see that the laws (e.g., immigration) are faithfully executed. In practice, however, President Biden and his administration would prefer not to. The United States has lost a basic aspect of (our) sovereignty. Control over its borders is a relic of the past.”
Hopefully, and hampered in timing by the holiday season, someone(s) in either the Executive or Legislative branch (or both) can find a way, very quickly, to halt or slow the approaching human flood and solve that coming catastrophic migrant border stampede. Something dramatic and immediate must be done. And done NOW!! Failing that, this administration will have, once again, along with too many others in positions of power, side-stepped ‘America First’ in yet another very big, bad, damaging, and regrettably permanent way.
(No time for border visit/vacation days via breitbart.com, Wendell Husebo, 12-7-22; Title 42 allowed expulsion of migrants via dailysignal.com, Hannah Davis/Peter Tsemberides, 12-12-22; Increased migrant crossings via dailymail.com, Katelyn Caralle, 12-13-22; Migrants walked across to El Paso via dailycaller.com, Alyssa Blakemore, 12-12-22; Hagerty fentanyl “tsunami” via foxnews.com, America Reports staff, 12-13-22; Approximate fentanyl deaths in America in 2021 via foxnews.com, Senator Marco Rubio, 12-14-22; Request for more money/heightened border crossings per day estimate via foxnews.com, Adam Shaw/Rich Edison, 12-13-22; McCarthy response to WH charge that Republicans won’t work with Democrats to solve the border crisis via foxnews.com, Staff, 12-14-22; Rubio quote via foxnews.com, Marco Rubio,12-14-22; Scott Johnson quote via powerlineblog.com, Scott Johnson, 12-13-22).