In an apparent reversal of previous announcements, the Biden administration kept a Trump-era directive using the pandemic to deport illegal migrants. Left-wing groups are suing.
Summary
The Biden administration is continuing a Trump era border restriction, invoking âTitle 42â that gives officials the ability âto send migrants back to Mexico without the chance to seek asylumâ under a public health directive related to the coronavirus pandemic.
- âPro-migrantâ organizations filed a lawsuit against the administration to overturn the order, citing it as âinhumane.â
- The order allows the United States to admit some families and children, yet it remains âwidely used to expel single adults who seek to cross the borderâ, including more than half of those who tried to enter the United States illegally in June 2021.
- Mexico is reportedly refusing to accept non-Mexican families being deported from the United States under Title 42.
- Preliminary July figures show a possible all-time high in unaccompanied children attempting to cross the border, which is unusual because âcrossings usually slow duringâ the summer months.
- While CNNâs coverage leaned heavily on liberal groups like the ACLU suing the Biden administration over the continuation of Title 42, their reporting admitted the ârecord numbersâ of people attempting to cross the border illegally.
- The New York Timesâ reporting called the continuation of the policy âa shift by the administrationâ in light of the new hysteria over the coronavirusâ delta variant, which the New York Times says âbolsters the argumentâ for Title 42.
- NPR quoted pro-immigrant activists as saying the delta variant is not a âbasis for expelling people without a hearingâ, and that âthe country is in a much better positionâ regarding coronavirus than under the Trump administration.
- Newsmax interviewed former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli who believed the Biden administrationâs early immigration moves were a âcalculated decisionâ to increase their voter base and that he does not expect Title 42 to be kept in place much longer.
- Breitbart quoted Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who blasted the Biden administration and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas âfor failing to uphold immigration law, enforce Title 42, and secure our border.â
- The Washington Examiner reported that among those who are not being deported immediately under Title 42, those allowed to stay the United States are generally not being tested for coronavirus before being released.
© Dallas Gerber, 2021