Source: RT
The White House has exempted border-crossers from one of the last regulations Biden has not yet stripped in his frenzy of executive orders, requiring the US to repatriate illegal migrants as quickly as possible. However, Biden is reportedly still pushing to scrap the rule — an issue which his critics say could become catastrophic for the US.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing the presidential administration of refusing to enforce the administration’s authority under Title 42 to expedite the return of illegal aliens to their countries as quickly as humanly possible.
The lawsuit accuses Biden of eight counts of violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as well as the Take Care clause of the Constitution. Under the INA, individuals who cross the border must remain in custody “if they pose a significant public health risk.” However, the Biden administration has re-adopted the Obama administration’s ‘Catch and Release’ program, which infamously let migrants loose into the interior of the country where some were never relocated for their court dates.
According to Paxton, the DHS is refusing to use Title 42 to send thousands of illegal immigrants back to their home countries, essentially leaving the doors wide open for entire families without concern for the health of American citizens. However, the AG noted a rising trend regarding the use of Title 42 over the last several months, pointing to 53,623 members of family units sent home using that process in March, a considerable spike from the 19,587 thus processed in February and the 7,296 processed that way in January.
Enforced under former President Donald Trump by the authority of the Centers for Disease Control in order to protect the health of American citizens from unknown foreign diseases, Title 42 has been steadily growing in its use now that other programs for repatriating illegal immigrants have been shuttered or are in the process of being wound down.
The measure remains one of the few remaining legal routes to expedite sending new arrivals back where they came from. The Biden administration has not outright cut off its usage as it has with other regulations whose use has been unilaterally reversed – perhaps due to the looming presence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measure’s origins as a public health regulation.
The lawsuit notes that Biden’s CDC exempted unaccompanied children from Title 42 just over a week after taking office, triggering a major rise in the numbers of unaccompanied minors showing up at the border – a 105% increase from February to November. The suit is demanding Biden’s DHS cease allowing border crossers to skirt the Covid-19 guidelines the country’s own citizens are subject to – enforcing Title 42 at the border, a 14 day quarantine, and testing migrants for the virus.
However, DHS officials have been quietly pushing to ditch Title 42 altogether, according to Breitbart, citing officials, while Republicans point to the measure as the sole regulation holding back a massive influx of illegal immigrants.
After months of rumored chaos at border detention facilities, which barred journalists from visiting in an unprecedented crackdown, Biden finally admitted earlier this month that the situation had degenerated to “crisis” levels – though his staff backtracked on that claim, arguing it referred to the conditions in the countries the refugees were coming from. One migrant center for young girls at the border closed just weeks after opening due to reported “unbearable” conditions.
Photos seen of children’s migrant shelters shocked many, showing hugely overcrowded facilities with children wrapped in mylar blankets, given no beds or personal space and denied the social distancing and other Covid-19 measures they are legally due.
