As the U.S. braces for a mass influx of illegal immigrants with Title 42 expiring next week, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) have introduced an emergency piece of legislation that would give the Biden administration more time to expel migrants, though not for public health reasons.
“Despite our repeated calls, the Biden administration failed to plan ahead and implement a realistic, workable plan; our legislation gives them more time to put a plan in place that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the frontlines of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely,” Sinema said in a statement.
The legislation would provide protections for migrants whose return to their home countries would threaten their life, freedom, or expose them to torture. It also provides protections for migrants with acute medical needs.
Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are also co-sponsoring the bill.
The legislation would need at least 60 votes to pass the Senate, making it all but guaranteed that it won’t pass before Title 42’s expiration, and it faces an uphill climb more broadly in a chamber that has struggled in recent years to find consensus on border and immigration issues.
And it comes as the House is set to vote on its own sweeping border and immigration proposal next week. But it’s not meant to be a response to that bill — with aides and senators involved noting that Sinema, Tillis and others are holding broader talks on a separate track — but instead is in response to the looming May 11 date for the expiration of the Trump-era authority. (Politico)
“Arizona border communities, law enforcement agencies, non-profits, and families are being left to manage a crisis they did not create. Despite our repeated calls, the Biden Administration failed to plan ahead and implement a realistic, workable plan; our legislation gives them more time to put a plan in place that will secure our border, protect Arizona communities on the frontlines of this crisis, and ensure migrants are treated fairly and humanely,” Sinema said in a statement.
Other lawmakers, meanwhile, are urging the Biden administration to keep Title 42.
“We shudder to think about how much worse the situation at the border would have been over the past three years had it not been for the deterrent effect of Title 42,” a group of Republican senators wrote to Biden this week. “Over the past three years, the Title 42 order has been a lifeline to the men and women of Border Patrol, who have been working heroically 24 hours a day to secure our southern border amid the worst border crisis in our lifetimes. Even with Title 42 in place, illegal crossings at the border have been at all-time highs.”
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