American Civil Liberties Union immigration lawyer Lee Gelernt told CNN on Wednesday he does not consider the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border to be a national security concern as the number of illegal crossings remain at historic highs.
Gelernt, who is the deputy director for the ACLU's Immigrants’ Rights Project, also said Republicans are "overstating" what has been happening at America's southern border.
"I think Congress needs to put more resources in. It’s all about enforcement now. But these families — I mean, you hear people saying, well, this is a national security crisis — if you would see these families at the border, and I know CNN has been down there all the time, these families walk over the border, and they just sit down with their little children wanting to apply for asylum. They’re not bringing drugs, they’re not a danger. And so let’s move some of the enforcement resources into processing cases," Gelernt said.
Gelernt said Title 42 has been used as a crutch at the border and there needs to be an actual immigration policy in place because Title 42 is a public health order.
"It was not intended to regulate the border. I also think people are overstating what’s happening at the border. If you close the border for so long, of course, there’s going to be a temporary influx of people, but ultimately it’ll even out, and the federal government has more than enough resources to deal with this," he explained.
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Gelernt's comments comes as not only has the number of people who turn themselves in to Border Patrol are at all-time highs, but so has the number of "gotaways," those who avoid being arrested by Border Patrol. The number of people who were managed to be apprehended and are on a government watchlist for suspected ties to terrorist organizations have also reached new heights during the Biden administration.
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